Eva Rebellion Part 2: Errantry
by brassmonki
Summary: Nerv now turns their attentions to the largest threat, their former masters, Seele. The second book of the rebellion series. Nerv stops cowering in Tokyo-3 and strikes out at a factory in an undisclosed location... (Note: contains red hot eva action)
1. 1

Disclaimer: Is my name in the credits? No. Therefore I don't own Evangelion.  
  
Sorry this is late - been busy.  
  
Forgive ooc-ishness. For a fuller explanation of what's going on read Part 1. Well, that's stating the bloody obvious.  
Oh and seele's in script format. It's easier to digest like that- don't ask me why.  
Anyhu, the show must go on ...  
  
  
CHAPTER 1  
  
A dreamer dreams. What of?  
  
Four pillars.   
  
One of gold.  
  
One of blue.  
  
One, a jet black.  
  
One, a soothing purple.  
  
Slowly, the purple began to fade.  
  
The gold pillar grew larger, filling the dreamers view.  
  
It swallowed the dreamer whole, her world becoming a painful existence of harsh light.  
  
Asuka awoke.  
  
A beam of light lanced through the gap in her curtains. She glanced over to the clock beside her bed. It flicked over to a new minute and began beeping. She grinned evilly.  
  
There was a loud crash.  
  
Asuka emerged from her room later, picking bits of plastic off of her hand. The dream was a rapidly fading memory. She was fully dressed in her school uniform. She scanned the kitchen, vaguely looking for something to eat. The place was a mess. Asuka had only just realised how much work Shinji must have done to keep the place clean.  
  
Misato had never been up to the task of cleaning, and the apartment had degenerated into the bachelorette pad it was before Shinji arrived. Asuka occasionally tried to help tidy, but the amount of effort needed to even make a dent in the squalid apartment was beyond her.  
  
Well, it was not that bad. Asuka was just lazy.  
  
Finding nothing edible, she decided to go get breakfast at some cafe. It was the first day of school today. She would be seeing Hikari again, probably the only good thing about today.  
  
----------------------------------------------------  
  
Art knocked on a door in a decrepit apartment building. He smiled. It had been two weeks since he arrived in Japan, probably the only Englishman in Tokyo-3 right now. He ran a hand through his raven hair, thinking about the first time he met the person whose door he was knocking on. First impressions had never been that good, but now he ranked her as one of his few friends in the city.   
  
The wind kicked up his clothing. He wore a white shirt with black trousers, the uniform of the school he would be attending from now on. Truth be told, he was not looking forward to today. Oh, it was all right for the other pilots, this was just back to the norm for them, but for Art it would be new faces, new crowds. He hated crowds.  
  
And crowded best described the city now. Re-construction after successive angel strikes had been swift, and now people were returning in great numbers to the city. Which was why they re-opened the school.  
  
The door opened and Art grinned a fresh. The blue haired girl looked at him curiously. "You are early."  
  
Art glanced at his watch, "Only by ten minutes. You ready?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Well, let's go then."  
  
Art waited through the now familiar ceremony of Rei locking her door very carefully. It seemed odd to him, but he had been visiting this door for a fortnight now, and yet he had never seen the inside of the apartment. He mentally shrugged. It was not important. Besides he had more pressing things to worry about now. First days at a new school would do that to you.  
  
----------------------------------------------------  
  
Maya sat down at her console, idly logging in with one hand. With the other, she picked up a mug resting on her console and threw it over her shoulder.   
  
Aoba, sat down, logged in on his console, picked up his mug, and threw it over his shoulder.  
  
"Gneh! That had stuff in it!"  
  
Aoba grinned, and looked over at Hyuga, holding two mugs. There was a brown stain across his shirt. "Oops."  
  
Hyuga grumbled and rolled his chair over to the small counter which had the coffee pot. Aoba looked over at Maya, who was flicking through the duty roster, with no real interest. Today would be slow. All the follow up to the recent attack was done, and the three were looking forward to just sitting around, playing Solitaire again.  
  
"Aren't you playing teacher today?"  
  
"No, they go back to school today."  
  
"Well, good for you."  
  
"I guess. Giving out homework was fun though. Less fun marking it though."  
  
"Well, it's not like you were getting paid for it."  
  
----------------------------------------------------  
  
... plink ...  
  
A single droplet of water sent ripples throughout an orange lake.  
  
The form of Shinji Ikari floated in the lake, and let the ripples wash over him. With each wave, a sense of shame washed over him. With each passing of the ripple he felt pain. As he felt the next wave arrive he felt a giddy sense of excitement.  
  
... splash ...  
  
Something larger than a water droplet hit, and Shinji looked up to see a giant apparently gripping something small, arm stretched out. As Shinji looked, he felt nothing but fear. But what scared him more was the sense of comfortable familiarity.  
  
He shut his eyes.  
  
And opened them to find himself sitting in the entry plug, no more than a torture chamber to him. The viewer held but one image. An outstretched purple arm, clasping a silver haired boy. He was smiling serenely.  
  
"You may kill me again if you wish."  
  
Shinji shuddered and gave no answer. "I will not stop you. It was my choice to die."  
  
"Doesn't, .. it doesn't make it right."  
  
The silver haired boy raised an eyebrow. "But this is the simpler solution, is it not?"  
  
Shinji looked up sharply, "So?!"  
  
"I hurt you, didn't I?"  
  
No response.  
  
"Yes, I wounded you to your core." Kawarou looked puzzled. "These are your words not mine."  
  
Kawarou's eyes flicked from left to right. "I see, this is the me that you keep in your heart. You prefer to talk to yourself though the voices of others. Why?"  
  
No response.  
  
"So you hide from yourself. You feel the pain caused by others and yourself and yet when you confront it you feel more pain. So you run?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"But what if you can no longer run?"  
  
"I do not know."  
  
"Such as now?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"So take the simple option left to you."  
  
"And that is?"  
  
"The one I offer."  
  
Shinji closed his eyes. A tear was squeezed out of one eye. He could not bear to watch.  
  
But he felt it.  
  
There was only a slight pressure, as he felt his hand close.  
  
... plink ...  
  
A pause...  
  
... splash ...  
  
--------------------------------------------------  
  
In the waking world, Shinji Ikari was curled up on a hospital bed. There was a calming beep of a heart monitor. Sunlight shafted in through the windows, just stopping short of the bed.  
  
The body of Shinji Ikari lay still.  
  
But his hand was closed.  
  
---------------------------------------------------  
  
Dark room.   
  
Dark obelisks.   
  
Blood red letters.  
  
Seele2: Ikari has gone too far.  
  
Seele3: He must be brought to account for his threats.  
  
Seele7: Perhaps we should wait?  
  
All obelisks fell silent.  
  
Seele1: Explain.  
  
Seele6: We do not know how certain third parties acquired the knowledge to build evangelion.  
  
Seele12: Should that bother us?  
  
Seele4: We have the capacity to build far more than that which we have.  
  
Seele8: Then perhaps we should build more?  
  
Seele7: Yes, a great host of angels.  
  
Selee1: The continued production of the eva series is appealing.  
  
Seele6: So we shall wait?  
  
Seele1: Yes.  
  
Seele2: What of the other projects?  
  
Seele7: They are of little importance.  
  
Seele2: But considerable time and funds have been sent to them.  
  
Seele3: Perhaps we should continue their operation for now.  
  
Seele1: Agreed.  
  
Seele7: The least they would do, would be to delay Ikari.  
  
Seele5: True.  
  
Selee1: Your time is nearing an end, Ikari.  
  
Seele7: Soon our destiny will manifest.  
  
---------------------------------------------------  
  
The lunch bell tolled, signalling an end to the morning lessons. The cafeteria erupted with students. There was a lot of gossip - they had been away for over a month now - mostly about new foreign transfer students.   
  
Asuka sat by herself, and like so many before her, was prodding something wrapped in cellophane. She had no idea that the food was this bad. She prodded what she hoped was a sandwich again, in the vain hope that it would squeak, so that she would not even have to consider eating it.  
  
She had gotten used to the really good meals that Shinji had made. Although she had never said it, they were very good. Which made going back to the instant stuff she had eaten during college much harder than it would otherwise have been. 'Damned Shinji.'  
  
Tentatively she began to unwrap the 'sandwich', but was saved from eating it by an angry Hikari collapsing into the chair next to her. "That God damned perverted arrogant Brit!"  
  
Asuka blinked in surprise. Hikari had been told to show Cooper around, but there had only been ten minutes since the bell had gone. Even Asuka could not believe someone could piss off Hikari that much in such a short amount of time. "So what did Cooper do?"  
  
Hikari glared at Asuka, "He's a damned pervert!"  
  
Asuka raised an eye brow and began grinning.   
  
"What are you grinning at!"  
  
"New boy getting to ya?"  
  
Hikari growled. "Like you can talk. The first thing you did today was tell everyone how much that damned foreign boy pissed you off over the time we were away!"  
  
Asuka shrugged, "So what'd he do?"  
  
"He just ... he's so ... hell, I'm too angry to talk about it."  
  
"Ah, speak of the devil."  
  
Art walked past the two girls view, tray in his hands. He grinned at them both, and winked at Hikari. As he walked away, Hikari began gesticulating wildly, "See!"  
  
Art walked over to Rei who was also prodding something wrapped in cellophane. She felt it was required of her to perform this ritual, although she could not tell the difference between this food and that which she ate normally. True she never made her own food, she usually ate from the Nerv personnel canteen. This was the first time she had eaten at the school, and all though she had never tried this food before, she had a sense that the experience would not be pleasant.  
  
Art found a chair and dragged into a place opposite Rei. The table was a small one, tucked into the corner of the cafeteria. Rei glanced up, shocked that someone had come to sit with her. Art grinned.  
  
Hikari's and Asuka's view was blocked by a group of girls wandering past. "What was that about?" asked Hikari.  
  
"Oh, it's been like that for a while now. Cooper seems intent on drawing wonder girl's lousy personality out."  
  
"What, him and Ayanami ..?"  
  
Asuka looked at her friend in shock, "Wonder girl?!"  
  
Hikari nodded, "Good point." She sighed, "I'm gonna have to show that arrogant pig around later."  
  
"Didn't you just do that?"  
  
"Nah, I told him to leave before I could finish. If I had to spend another minute with him, I'd probably end up killing him. That guy really bugs me."  
  
"Really? I couldn't tell."  
  
"Shut up."  
  
---------------------------------------------------  
  
"But, but they're just kids!"  
  
"I am aware of that fact Major."  
  
Misato now stood in Gendo's darkened office, not noticing the man surreptitiously pulling a lamp from his desk and placing it in a cupboard. She was still in shock from the orders she had just received.  
  
"Regardless, you shall lead an assault on the factory in the States."  
  
"We cannot ask these children to kill other humans!"  
  
Gendo raised an eyebrow, "We are not fighting for principles major. This is now for the survival of this organisation."  
  
"But sir, they are not attacking. Should we really provoke the-"  
  
"Major, any good officer knows that the best form of defence is offence."  
  
"Sir, I must strongly recommend agai-"  
  
"Your recommendation is noted. You will move out in two days."  
  
"Two days!?"  
  
"Dismissed."  
  
"Please sir..."  
  
"Dismissed."  
  
She came to attention and saluted. She span on her heel and stalked out of the room, under the impassive gaze of Commander Ikari.  
  
'He can't let them do this. They're too young to have blood on their hands.' But then she thought about each personality. Rei would do as she was ordered and would barely think twice about pulling a trigger. Asuka would probably be okay with it. She really could not tell with Art.   
  
The orders were to go to a forward base, location classified, to attack a factory, the purpose of which was also classified. She hated procedure. She barely knew what the hell was going on. She disliked the fact that she was being kept in the dark, and she resented the commander asking her to leave the country when Shinji was in the state he was in.  
  
But at least it would be a chance to get away from Hyuga. That mistake in the elevator had probably cost her his friendship, and she did not want to face that reality.  
  
--------------------------------------------------  
  
Kensuke leaned against a wall, elbow resting on a water fountain. He was still in school, despite the bell having gone. He cracked open a can of coffee, and took a long pull, of the bitter, yet oh so satisfying liquid. He could go home. But there was no homework, so he could take his time. He thought about calling at Ikari's place, but if he did not show up at school, he probably did not want to be seen.  
  
Truth be told, Kensuke was lonely. Touji was out of town, getting physio for his new prosthetics. He had not seen him for months, and the only person he had to talk to had been Hikari. That got old really quick though. She insisted on studying, even though there was no school, and while Kensuke may be a little wiser for the experience, it sure as hell was boring.  
  
He sighed. That pretty much summed up his life. Boring.  
  
A black haired boy skidded around a corner, and leant against the wall, panting. "Bloody ... hellfire... she ... can run ... fast." Kensuke looked on with an air of disbelief as the boy took a tentative look around the corner. Relaxing the boy eased his back against the wall, and breathed out.   
  
"Um ...?"  
  
The boy turned his head sharply, a look of terror passing across his face. The relief was evident when he saw it was Kensuke. "Not so loud, she might hear." He looked forward again. "You nearly gave me a heart attack."  
  
An angry voice was heard drifting across the now empty corridors, "Cooper! When I get my hands on you I'm gonna tear you a new ass!"  
  
The boy sighed, "Bugger," he turned to Kensuke, "If a freckled Amazonian warrior comes around, you aint seen me, okay?" He did not wait for an answer and sprinted off down the corridor.  
  
Hikari stalked around the corner not long after that. She glared at Kensuke, "Aida! Have you seen that damn English kid!"  
  
Kensuke could only blink in shock.   
  
She looked down the corridor, "Never mind! Cooper, get back here so I can beat your ass into the ground!"  
  
There was a faint reply, "Sorry class rep. not into s&m!"  
  
"What?! I'll kill you!" and with that she darted after him.  
  
A few seconds after that, Rei Ayanami stepped lightly around the corner. She was smiling.  
  
She saw Kensuke staring, "This is most amusing." Then she walked after the rapidly retreating Hikari, who was in turn in pursuit of a small dust cloud that was Art.   
  
Kensuke blinked.   
  
He blinked again. He stared in disbelief at the can in his hand. He shook his head, and poured the contents out into the fountain.  
  
"Starting tomorrow, I'm switching to decaf."  
  
----------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
Author's notes:   
Wow. Some people are really hostile to accs. It's really stifling creativity. A bit of advice to those with accs. Some people will like them. Some people won't. The key is to keep writing, and damn the flames yes, im looking at you, mr. anonymous flamer.  
  
Also, those people asking me to keep Art away from other characters need to re-evaluate their personal lives. Just thinking about people like that gives me the jibblies.   
  
Here they come again. The jibblies. shudders 


	2. 2

Disclaimer: see chapter 1  
  
Sorry this is kinda late, but you know how it goes, school etc.   
  
Oh, and the reason art's British is because,......... well, .......  
  
Chapter 2  
The elevator doors opened to reveal a raven haired boy, looking at the floor, a small bag tucked between his legs. Rei glanced impassively at him before stepping in, carrying her own bag. Art looked up and grinned. Rei turned around to face the doors as the slid shut.  
  
"Good morning," said Art.  
  
"Is it?"   
  
He laughed, "Well, it started okay."  
  
Rei was confused. As far as she could tell there had been no jest on her part. 'Strange boy.' The elevator reached the bottom floor, and a strangled electronic sound was heard, which was probably once a ping. The doors slid open, and the blue haired girl, and black haired boy walked out to the street.  
  
It was a clear early morning. Even the clouds had refused to get out of bed, and so the chill of the night remained. Art breathed in a good lungful. The air was crisp, a kind of frosty smell that he associated with home. You could almost taste the cold on the tip of your tongue. He grinned.  
  
Rei stood on the side walk, bag in hand, looking blankly across the road. Art looked at her. She wore her school uniform. He was not sure about Japanese customs, but surely she was allowed to wear something besides that. The uniform looked as though it could not cope against the cold. "Um, are you cold?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Art mentally shrugged. He was used to Rei's special brand of point blank honesty, unnerving though it may be. "Well, do you want to borrow my jacket or something?"  
  
"Why would you do that?"  
  
"Um, 'cos otherwise you would be cold?"  
  
"Oh."  
  
"So do you want to borrow my jacket?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Because then you would be cold."  
  
Art sighed, but was saved from having to reply by Misato's car pulling up.   
  
----------------------------------  
  
In the hospital room reserved for this frequent visitor, Shinji Ikari dreamed. What of?  
  
"It bothers you doesn't it?"  
  
Shinji managed a weak nod. Misato chuckled as they drove into a tunnel, the bright lights a break from the dark of night. "It's because you care too much about what others think of you."  
  
Shinji looked at her, "I just don't want to be hated."  
  
Misato shook her head, "You don't want to be alone, so you pander to the wishes of others."  
  
"No, that's not-"  
  
"It's pathetic Shinji."  
  
There was a long pause. "I know that Misato."  
  
"Do you really?"  
  
Shinji searched his mind for an answer. "No. I can't really say I do."  
  
"That is why it's pathetic."  
  
The car seemed to melt away around them, leaving Shinji sitting on a small fold out chair. The world seemed to swirl into a new place, a green park, the sun shining on the recently cut grass.  
  
Shinji looked around, wondering why he had been brought there.   
  
---------------------------------  
  
"Are you ok back there Arthur?" Misato asked sweetly, an evil grin on her face.  
  
"Mef, 'm fim mamr, *Yes, I'm fine Major*" said a pile of luggage on the back seat. "mich,*best not translated*" it mumbled.  
  
"Oh, good."  
  
Art sighed. It would be an hours trip to the airbase. He probably should not be so arrogant towards the major, but she started it. Besides, it was a matter of who cracked first now, no matter who started this private war. Art mentally shrugged, he could not physically there were too many bags. He was stubborn as hell when it came to private wars, and he would be damned if he would lose.  
  
Misato grinned, 'Me one, arrogant English kid, nuffin, heh heh.' She realized it was a little unfair taking on a teen in a private cold war, but he started it. Well, if foreigners whose ego could barely fit in the car wanted to start a grudge match against her then she would finish it. Besides, she needed something to do over the long plane journey.  
  
Asuka sat in the front seat, a scowl on her face. Truth be told, she was terrified of the boy in the seat behind her. He was present at some of the most desperate times of her life, and she hated the fact that he knew about those events. What made it worse, was the fact that he had not mentioned it all to anyone, least of all her. The only indication he gave was a tendency to give her a worried look when he thought no one was looking.  
  
She was terrified he would just tell people about what happened to her in the eva cage. It could ruin her piloting carer, and that was the only thing keeping her together right now. Her social life was damaged heavily as word of her mental breakdown got around, and her popularity had taken a dive. All that was left now was herself, her job, and a shaky relationship with Misato. She could not afford to loose any of them. Not now.  
  
Rei was staring out of the window. Not thinking much at all.  
  
Through a gap in the suitcases that he was drowning in, Art could see Rei staring out of the window. He was confused. Every now and then he would think up some random feature of Rei and sit fascinated by it for hours. This was new to him, and he was passing it off as a brief infatuation, and hoping to hell, he was right. To him, a relationship was the last thing he wanted, especially just before a combat engagement. 'But, god help me she looks good in that uniform.'  
  
Asuka squirmed in her seat. She could almost taste the tension in the car. She resisted the urge to leap over the seat and throttle the boy until he promised not to say a word. 'Later,' she told herself, 'When Misato can't hear.' That seemed to calm the anxious voices in her mind. Calm them. Not silence them.  
  
Rei almost smiled. They were driving past the hospital.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Shinji smiled as he saw Misato walk up a winding gravel path amongst the bright grass. Seeing Shinji she stepped off the path, and walked up to him. This was more like it. He had this dream many times before, and he enjoyed it immensely every single time. Each time he experienced it, Misato got a little bit more ...  
  
"Inventive," he said out loud.  
  
But something was slightly wrong. Her expression was not the usual cheerful, warm and, um, 'suggestive' smile that usually blessed her features. She was coldly glaring at him, an expression of iron set determination. Shinji did not really take much notice. If his psyche wanted to explore new avenues he was more than willing to rise to the challenge.  
  
His excitement grew as she closed to within a few steps of him. He wore the same stupid grin of men everywhere when they knew that, one way or another, the next few moments would be full of excitement. The dark quality of her eyes did not detract from the anticipation he felt. She raised her arm.  
  
Shinji heard the crack before he felt the pain. A bright red hand mark blossomed onto his cheek. Dumbfounded by this change in the plan, his jaw fell to the floor, his eyes widened with shock. He slowly drew his hand up, not quite sure what the hell just happened.  
  
Then the barrage started.  
  
"You disgust me."  
  
Shinji felt an ice cold dagger drive into his heart. This was the kind of pain he ran from. He hated this. He was helpless against that chill which penetrated his soul and pulled all the switches marked 'Hurt'. only those that knew him had that power. he distanced himself from these people, never truly trusting them. Why he only kept the ideal of the person in his head, and never the reality. His perfect people who could never hurt him because they were not real.  
  
"This is what you think of me then?"  
  
He felt burning shame rush up from his gut. He treated these people poorly. His perfect people nothing but objects for him to play with. They could never feel pain, never ever tell him that he was the cause of suffering. But, here she was, a more real version of Misato confronting his worst side of himself where Shinji thought only he could go. she attacked him right in the sub-conscious.  
  
"Is this why you worry what people think of you? Are you frightened they'll see what's really inside?"  
  
He could never let people inside. If they saw what was inside they would call him a monster. He let them see his ideal, the Shinji Ikari he wanted them to love, and the one he desperately wanted to be himself. If only so he could begin to like himself. He believed with an almost fanatic fervour that if he kept pleasing everybody, bowing to their wishes then they would like him. Then perhaps it was possible that he was not the scum he thought himself to be.  
  
"So you distance yourself?"  
  
he distanced the real part of himself yes. He had to. But the ideal Shinji Ikari was their for all to see, all to like, all to love. But as people got closer they always seemed to see right through that Shinji Ikari, right to the pathetic wimp who he despised. And when they saw that he despised himself, then they despised him. He could not help it. It was his way. As a result, he kept everyone at arms length. A least then they tolerated him, or at least tolerated the fake Shinji.  
  
"Even when someone is crying out in pain, you refuse to let your heart open."  
  
That was the worst time to let people see him. When they needed someone's help, they did not need stupid, weak emotional wreck Shinji. They needed tough, strong, never give up Shinji. he was the Shinji who piloted eva, not because it gave him a meaning but to help others. It was not his fault that this Shinji had no real compassion. He usually ended up causing more pain when he tried to help. there was nothing he, or the real Shinji could do. A brief image of Misato weeping over the kitchen table filled his mind. Nothing he could do. Even for the woman he considered his mentor, his friend, the closest thing to a parent he had since his father abandoned him.  
  
"You disgust me."  
  
She had accepted him, or at least the Shinji he had shown to her. She had let him into her life unconditionally. His only friend during the early days. And he had let the pain of her lovers death eat her insides until their was nothing but the raw and bloody core of her soul left. The cold steel which she had placed around her heart from then on was a survival reaction to the loss of her kindred spirit was his fault. if only he had not been such a coward then perhaps he could have kept her from becoming so numb to the world. Made her more like the perfect ideal he had in his head.  
  
"A boy who can't even live with his own harsh reality."  
  
It was true. he could never face what was inside him. He pushed others from him to keep them from seeing his core. He ran away from those who tried to see what lay behind his expressionless face. He put up ideals around the things closest to his heart, the things he was most ashamed of. If they saw what was inside, then he would see the reflection of his darker self in their terror and disgust filled eyes. He simply could not face the beast within himself.  
  
"That's sad."  
  
Shinji Ikari screamed.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Art's eyes flicked open. Vibrations. Through his seat. His sleepy mind struggled to bring the world into focus. 'Let's see. Seats to the front, vibrations through chair. That weird recycled smell. Must still be on plane.' He yawned as the world slowly began to make more sense.  
  
He liked this bit of waking up. It was a little bit outside reality where the nightmares and dreams faded, and before the horrors and joys of reality hit. He shook his head. he must of read that in a book somewhere. He was about as poetic as a brick, especially when he just woken up.  
  
Then reality hit like a tornado. 'Ah yes. The reason of why we're going to um...' He stopped. He was going somewhere, to do something pretty awful, and yet he had no idea where. If he was going to kill people he wanted to know where he was doing it. Killing people. That was the thing. He was not sure how he felt about that. He was aware it may happen eventually, but there was a real difference between learning to fight and actually pulling the trigger.  
  
He was rescued from having to think about the problem by a red head standing over impatiently. 'Ah, no wonder I woke up.'  
  
"Are you just going to sit there English?"  
  
"Uh, didn't have any other plans. Why?"  
  
"I need to have a little chat with you," she looked to the left of Art. He followed her gaze to see a sleeping Rei, leaning against the cabin wall. A brief grin crossed across his face. She was so peaceful.  
  
"Hey! Stop ignoring me!"  
  
"Ok, ok, calm down. I'm coming."  
  
Asuka waited impatiently as the boy got up from his seat. She still thought it was a stupid idea, but she had to tell him to keep his mouth shut. It was killing her, the anxiety that he would blab about how weak she had been. She just could not bear that anyone had such power over her life.   
  
The boy stood, "Where's the major?"  
  
"Oh, she's flirting with the pilot in the cockpit. I hung around for a while, but when she tried to grip his joystick I just left. Follow me."  
  
"Yes ma'am." He followed her to the back of the plane. The jet had been commandeered by Nerv for the safe transport of the eva pilots. As a consequence it was empty except for the children, Misato and the, um, lucky pilot, and an escort of high altitude-fighters. The cabin lights had been dimmed, to allow the pilots to rest before they got to the field of battle.  
  
At the end of the cabin Asuka led Art into the unused galley, harsh bright light illuminating the spartan kitchen. She span on her heel to face him, "Okay English boy, what are you up to?"  
  
Art was taken back by her sudden demand, "Uh, you told me to follow you, so-"  
  
"Not that dumkopf. When do you plan to tell everyone what happened in the eva cage, huh?! You biding your time?! Waiting for me to be at my lowest?! Or do you just plan to hold this over my head forever?! Well?! Tell me?!"  
  
Art backed away. Asuka pressed forward, walking towards him, "That's it isn't it! You were going to blackmail me for something weren't you?! Or are you just some kind of sicko who gets off on causing others pain?! You were waiting for my life to get real good weren't you?! Just so you could rip the carpet from underneath me."  
  
Art hit the cabin wall. As he felt the plastic of the bulkhead behind him, a change passed over his eyes. He stopped backing away. His blue eyes seemed to blaze an icy fire. Asuka stared directly into the face of a boy with no where else to run. She began to take a step back. His expression remained the same, but his eyes just hinted  
  
As quickly as the moment came, it departed. Art's eyes seemed to return to normal as Asuka backed away, the cold fire replaced first by shame, and then pity. Art let a long breath out. "Look Sohryu, as far as I'm concerned what happened in the cage stays there."  
  
He walked past her, on the way to his seat. As he drew shoulder to shoulder with her, he stopped. He searched for something meaningful to say, something that would not sound trite, or petty. He sighed, "Goodnight Ms. Sohryu."   
  
Asuka just stood speechless. Art left, having nothing else to say.   
  
----------------------------------  
  
A nervous corporal stood to attention as they walked down the flight of stairs wheeled up to the plane. It was dusk there, and all the noises of the nearby city were drowned out by the engines of the plane. As Misato walked passed him, he through up a quick salute, but was neatly ignored by Misato who was scowling at the cheap land rover they had sent to pick them up. The nervous corporal began to shake with nervousness.   
  
He held his salute as Asuka walked past. She stopped, looked him over, glanced at Misato still glaring at the landie. She turned back to him, "Baka." She walked away.  
  
Rei stepped past him, and barely acknowledged him. The corporal, began to sweat with anxiety. Was he expected to hold this salute all day?  
  
Art stepped down, already unbalanced by the weight of Misato's and Asuka's hand luggage. He staggered down the last step, regaining his balance, and looking at the nervous corporal. He glanced at Misato. "You know, officer baiting only works if the officer is paying attention."   
  
"Phneh!"  
  
"All right, all right. Major? This guy wants to talk to you."  
  
"Good 'cos I wanna talk to him about this so-called transportation." She strode up to in front of him, "What the hell is that poor excuse for a rusted out old sh-"  
  
The corporal stood there, a look of polite incomprehension on his face. His hand holding the salute began to waver, and a film of sweat coated his forehead. Art looked at his uniform and noted the US flag stitched proudly onto one arm. He sighed.  
  
"She said she's un-happy with the transportation," he said in English. Switching back to Japanese he addressed Misato, "Want me to get your stuff for you while you discuss these matters?"  
  
"Yeah, Art. Now how the hell are we supposed to fit al the bags in that?"  
  
"She said that they need a bigger car to fit all the bags in."  
  
The corporal was still saluting, "Uh, you need more luggage space? Than a land rover?"  
  
Misato saw the look of disbelief in his eyes, and knew what he said without needing Art to translate. Misato eyes closed to slits, "What are you implying?"  
  
Art's voice called out from where the luggage was being deposited on the taxi-way, "She asked what you were implying."  
  
"Um, nothing, nothing at all."  
  
"He says he's sorry Major."  
  
Asuka's voice could be heard above the whine of the dying jets, "Hey Cooper, why are you taking Misato's stuff?"  
  
"Well, what are you going to do about it?" Misato demanded.  
  
"Um, ... just being polite I guess. I don't really know why but it's always seemed to be the right thing to do ... You want me to carry your bags as well right? She wants to know what you're going to do about it by the way."  
  
"Um, call out another vehicle?"  
  
"You know, you're not as dumb as you look," said Asuka  
  
"Cheers. I think. He said he'd call out another car."   
  
"Well done. I can tell you're a career man."  
  
"Christ that's heavy. She says well done."  
  
"Thank you ma'am."  
  
"He says thanks." Art's voice was a little muffled now.  
  
"Well, get to it then."  
  
"mee, mfs met mo mi," said a walking pile of luggage.  
  
Asuka sighed, "She told you to get your ass in gear, dumkopf."  
  
"Uh, yes ma'am." In the corner of his eye, he could see a walking hill of luggage. Asuka lifted up a very small bag and placed it lightly on a spare finger that was protruding from the pile of cases.   
  
"See," she said triumphantly, "I told you he could take everything wonder girl."  
  
"I simply stated that he should not have to take all of the luggage."  
  
"Ma'am, I'll send someone along to help with your luggage."  
  
Asuka relayed this information to Misato.  
  
Misato grinned, "No he's doing fine-" There was a loud crash, followed by a muffled bugger. Misato grinned a little more, "On second thoughts, send someone to dig him out from under that."  
  
"She says help the idiot Brit."  
  
"Uh, yes ma'am!" Misato began to walk away, "Uh, ma'am?" Misato noticed for the fist time that he was saluting.  
  
"Oh," and returned the salute. As she walked away, the corporal breathed out. His arm was really tired. He turned to the mound of luggage, which had a boy trying to dig himself out from under a suitcase. 'Poor bastard. It'll take three humvees to move that.'  
  
-----------------------------------  
  
A man sat in his darkened office, illuminated by a faint green glow.  
  
"Sir?"  
  
"What is it."  
  
"Sir, the Nerv personnel have arrived in the country."  
  
"Really?" The man had grey hair, and sat behind a desk that could fit a tank on its surface. On it were piles of paper with columns of numbers, small sketches of what looked like Jet Alone models.  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
"This was sooner than expected. Leave."  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
The man stood, picking up an ebony cane from the desktop. "So you turn to bite our hand Ikari."  
  
----------------------------------  
  
It was night. Asuka and Rei had been assigned a room with a bunk bed and told to sleep. Asuka was naturally on the top bunk, with Rei simply nodding an affirmative to her choice.  
  
Asuka fidgeted in the itchy bunk that she had been assigned to. She was pretty tired, but she had too much on her mind to sleep now. 'That damned Cooper.' That boy had her all mixed up inside now, just by the simple act of dragging her from a watery grave.  
  
She still could not trust him. He was just a boy she had met only a few weeks ago. Someone who just happened to save her life when she wanted it to end. She knew nothing of him. She would even prefer Misato to know about what happened in the eva cage than this stranger.   
  
As she fidgeted the plastic that covered the mattress crackled. This annoyed her. For a start the plastic made the bed hot as hell, and the noise it made when she shifted positioned just pissed her off.   
  
Not for the first time, she wished he had just let her drown.   
  
Rei listened to Asuka grumbling for a while. She had no need to sleep, despite her orders being to do so. She had slept on the plane, and so now she simply stayed still, very quiet, staring straight upwards.  
  
She was thinking about Ikari again. Shinji.   
  
She had told herself that it was not her that wanted to be with him, but some other girl. It annoyed her to think that she was not listening. But as she thought about it she was slowly hoping that it was her desire to be with him. The giddy feeling of being close to him was intoxicating.   
  
She found herself grinning when she thought of him, which was an odd event in itself. She had seen the same expression on Coo- Art. He had asked her to call him by his first name. Until now, she thought it was just a normal expression, but now she was not so sure.  
  
----------------------------------  
  
Art sat on the edge of his bed, absent mindedly glaring at the far wall. It was a little unfair for him to keep switching between time zones. Only a fortnight ago he had been back in Blighty. As a result his internal clock was out of time with the rest of the world.  
  
He sighed. He knew that was not the reason why he was still awake. It was what happened on the plane.   
  
He cursed himself for coming so close to losing control. He hoped to God that Sohryu had missed it, but the rage which he kept trapped behind chains of iron had tried again to get out. It was probably a minor thing that everyone had, but it terrified him to think that there was a sea of rolling black behind his eyes. When his blood was up, and a feeling of pure rage built up he could feel it speak to him, tempting him to cast off the bindings he put there, to let the black run free.  
  
He remembered what his father had told him. Another piece of advice from his father stored away.  
  
He sighed. Why in the hell was he here?  
  
--------------------------------  
  
A/N: (sigh) When did my fic turn into an episode of nadesico. Oh well. Best review wins a cookie! And I promise, next chapter there will be some eva action.   
  
I mean it.  
  
Honest, guv.  
  
Stop looking at me like that.   
  
Thanks to sprite for pre-reading 


	3. 3

Disclaimer: See first chapter  
  
Well, I was gonna start this with a rant at non-believer, but sprite did that for me...  
  
But I will say this, pls only review in English, and when you do, at least spell Shinji right, k?  
  
Also, please don't bitch at each other with reviews, that's what e-mail is for, k?  
  
Anyway, on with the show...  
  
Chapter Three  
  
The inhabitants of Tokyo-3 are quite unaware of the private war against Selee. Nerv's propaganda department were not paid well to allow the public to be panicked by such events that were so far from the city limits. Instead, life in the city continued much as it did when the angels were attacking. Mostly day to day activities, but there was always the undercurrent of fear inn the populace.  
  
Fear of divine-like retribution from an N2 mine. Fear of the last angel not quite being the last after all. Fear of the new threat, which appeared to have come out of nowhere. Fear, as the city's guardians, the Evas, had left not only the city, but also the country.  
  
The mood in the city was tense, a mousetrap of communal fear and trepidation, hidden under an equally powerful desire to bring things back to normal. So they all put on a brave face, and smiled to the camera, lied to the journalist and even told their children it was all over. But when the camera was put away, or the notebook flipped shut, or the door to the nursery closed on peaceful dreamers, the old fear for their lives came rushing out.  
  
As a result, brief liaisons, promiscuous encounters with strangers rose to an all time high. Those that feared to die decided to live as much as they could, preferable with a companion, to try and ward off the seemingly inevitable doom of the city.  
  
Strange, as many had left only a few months before, just to return to the same old fear. But the kind of fear the people of Tokyo-3 had developed travels with you, eating away at any safe havens, making the shadows grow larger. And so they returned to the fortress like Tokyo-3, no longer a bastion for mankind's hope, but a rat tunnel of humanities fears.  
  
None felt the fear more keenly than Kensuke Aida. A mere observer to the war against the angels, he watched as both of his closest friends were cut down from their pride. He could only watch as Touji lay on his hospital bed, smiling, and trying not to notice the missing limbs. He could only watch as Shinji punished himself further for his failings, never realising his own worth, or the envy many held him in.  
  
And so Kensuke hated himself. He was just a watcher to the pain, unable to stop it. All he could do was be there when they asked for him. Which was not very often. And so he grew depressed. And he hated himself for feeling depressed. After all it was not him who suffered, it was others.  
  
Others like Hikari.   
  
Kensuke was sitting in the library opposite her, trying to make notes on his homework, but the thoughts in his head kept him from concentrating on his work. Hikari had been hit pretty hard by the war. Her father was at work a lot because of the angel attacks, and she had a crush on an oblivious Touji, only managing to get him after his brief time as a pilot, which left him crippled for life.   
  
And yet as he looked over his book at her, he could see no pain on her face, no regret. Just a slight frown of concentration as she thrust herself into her studies. He had come to admire that dogged determination in her to keep on with the normal routine, despite the world collapsing around her. And now, Kensuke held on to that determination like a drowning man, in a sea of fear.  
  
He sighed inwardly. And if nothing else, this non-stop studying was bringing his grades up sharply. Only yesterday he had got a hundred percent on his test, a previously unheard of score for Kensuke.  
  
He grinned, and refocused on the textbook in front of him, a large pad of clean paper just ready to be filled. He started to scribble furiously on the paper, before looking up at the book, and turning it the right way round.  
  
Hikari smiled as Kensuke turned the book right side up. It had been upside down since they had started, about an hour ago. She was going to say something, before she realised the glazed over look on his eyes. Over the weeks she had been spending with him she had come to realise that was his standard procedure when he wanted to do some heavy thinking. He would pretend to be doing something routine and dull, and his eyes would glaze over, and he would be in another world.  
  
She thought it was funny at first, the way he would just drift off into a brooding like trance. Then she saw it was his way of dealing with what was around him. Most people, herself included, tended to let problems sort themselves out in the back of their heads, basically ignoring them until they went away or got resolved. Kensuke tended to store up everything, and when he just filled up with problems he would brood for an hour or so. But when he finished thinking over, he would always grin, as if laughing at some private joke, and then get on with his life.   
  
She admired the way he could sort his life out in one go, and wished she could just start thinking for a while and sort out all of her problems. But no. She was not strong enough to face up to what was inside her. And so she kept it locked away behind her eyes, keeping up appearances, whilst on the inside she was tearing herself apart. Like her problem with Touji. She had not been able to face up to the simple truth that she liked him, and had to be told she was in lo... liked him a lot.  
  
She sighed inwardly. And continued with her homework.  
  
----------------------------------------  
  
Aoba looked dejectedly at Maya's empty station. He was slightly annoyed that she had been selected to go with Major Katsuragi. Now he had no one to tease Hyuga with apart from Dr. Akagi. And frankly when it came to teasing people she was just a little too good.  
  
Oh it was not that she was nasty or anything, it was just that he hated the competition. Maya and him had a little signal system set up, so that when Hyuga was not expecting it, they could concert their attack, and the result was usually the entire control centre erupting in laughter. As you can tell, Nerv employees get very bored when there are no angels to fight.  
  
The day usually started with Aoba and Maya throwing their mugs at Hyuga for him to fill up. It had taken years of early mornings and overtime to get all the kinks out of THAT system. The number of times Hyuga had thrown full mugs back out of spite was evidenced by the brown stains that could still be seen, despite numerous occasions when the commander had caught them playing multiplayer video games on the Magi and had forced them to clean out both the Magi memory systems, and the command centre itself.   
  
Then there was the interesting problem of replacing the coffee filter. That was Aoba's job. No one trusted any one else to do it.   
  
Hyuga kept on insisting they use his special brand of espresso grade bean. That had ended with Maya being sent to the sick bay to get a sedative before she plastered the entire of her console with hello kitty stickers. The only ones happy with that particular brand were Hyuga and Misato, who seemed to appreciate taking the equivalent of sixteen caffeine pills with each gulp.   
  
Then Maya was given the job of replacing the filter, which worked fine until she started adding things...  
  
The less said about that incident the better...  
  
Next up was Dr. Akagi. That did not last long. She was too busy to replace the filter, and there were days where the control centre personnel had gone without any hit of that sweet, sweet hot lava java. That had ended with Hyuga threatening to download RealPlayer onto the Magi central system. The commander had seen that this would be more lethal than any angel attack, and the hunt for the filter replacer continued.  
  
It continued for a few months, when Sub-Commander Fuyutski volunteered himself. Tired, groggy computer programmers stumbled into the room to find the Mr. Koffee replaced with a kettle and a teapot...  
  
It was then decided that only Aoba should replace that filter, and get the ground beans for the entire command deck. That only left the far more interesting problem of coffee mugs not cleaned for weeks on end. That was quickly sorted by Maya volunteering to replace and wash the used mugs each week. It was not perfect, but it was better than your morning hit of caffeine trying to make its own AT field.  
  
Hyuga sighed as he looked at Aoba staring blankly at his monitor. He grabbed a scrap bit of paper he had been doodling on previously, scrunched into a ball and threw it at Aoba's head. That snapped him out of his daydream, and he looked at his screen, which had flicked over to it's very ... revealing screen saver. 'Lucky Maya isn't here to see that,' he thought quickly tapping his mouse to bring back the normal screen.  
  
Hyuga shrugged as Aoba got back to work, and turned to face his own monitor. He was not really paying attention. Routine maintenance of the Magi system required next to no brain power whatsoever. So he basically cursed his misfortune that Mis- the Major had taken Maya with her to the strike in - wherever the strike was.  
  
----------------------------------------  
  
Art awoke again in his entry plug. His eyes snapped open, and he took a deep breath in, but gagged on the LCL that had caught in his throat. Coughing up the foul liquid he promised himself he would never fall asleep in the plug again. It felt like someone had poured coppery bile into the back of his throat and solidified it with used chewing gum. Sufficed to say, it was not a pleasant feeling.  
  
He looked around for what had woken him, scanning the interior of his entry plug. He could find nothing out of the ordinary, but his eyes came to rest on a small disc of brass. It was connected to the pilots couch by a chain, which was in turn hooked up to a handy non-essential loop. He leaned down to grab the brass disk, a small grin on his face. It was his cap badge, removed from his formal beret from Basic. He gripped it in his hand, just remembering all those stupid stories his instructors had told him to make him remember his drills. He kept the badge with him now as a reminder as to what he had to do.  
  
And that would be to pull the trigger.  
  
Well, now it was crunch time, and he would find out if he could do it. He was not sure he could. After all, they had not done anything to him, except sign on that dotted line at the bottom of the recruitment form. And just because they had filled in the wrong sides form was no reason to ki- shoot at them, shoot at them, not necessarily kill right?   
  
He remembered watching them fill the magazine for the standard eva assault rifle. The rounds were about the same size as cars. Like hell they would only injure someone. Anyone on the receiving end of that bullet would only have one probable, no, definite fate. And that would be to become a red smear on the landscape.  
  
Well, it was too late to back out now. He just had to remember that when he pulled that trigger that he was pulling it not for himself, or for some anonymous shadow government agency, but for those poor bastards on the end of whatever else these people might do to them. All for them. Yeah...  
  
He looked at the cap badge in his hands. Even to him those words sounded hollow and meaningless.   
  
" 'Standing on the shoulder's of giants' ...," he read out loud. He shook his head. He wondered how his instructors had done it when they were called to ki- shoot at some one. At least they knew it would be fair, but the people he would be forced to ki- shoot at would have no chance against the eva. His AT field would protect him, and they would have no chance.  
  
And he would kill them.   
  
There, he had said it.   
  
He looked up from his thoughts to see a little flashing red light on his radio panel. That indicated he was five minutes from the target. He made a few final checks of his entry plug, and slipped the badge's chain around the handy loop on the edge of the pilots couch.   
  
He was the deep penetration drop. He would be flown well into the enemy territory and dropped. He would have five minutes in which to secure the area before his battery power ran out, and if the power did run out and the area was still hostile, the trucks dragging the power cable would not enter the area. He would be left alone and downed, behind enemy lines. There was no doubt that if that happened he would be captured and killed, so that Nerv would have one less evangelion for a while.  
  
Art was very, well, scared of this. Standard equipment for his entry plug included a small Walther PPK, a diddy pistol to most people, but he doubted he could do much with it. It would probably only end up pissing them off when they found him, and he would most likely manage to shoot himself in the foot. But it was a little bit of protection, just a small hope in case the worst did happen.   
  
And he hoped the worst would not happen.  
  
----------------------------------------   
  
Unit 00 stood a long way from the front line. It was agreed that, as a prototype model, it would be unwise to put the eva in undue danger. As it was by far the most unpredictable eva of the three that would be taking part, using it somewhere away from the main battle line was considered a good idea, in case it went berserk and slaughtered half of the supporting industry.  
  
Rei did not mind much. This was barely important, and it allowed her to use the eva sniper rifle a.k.a the really big positron gun. It was rested on a hill, and gave her a commanding view of the battlefield. Her role was simple. Fire her first shot at the grey slab of the factory roof, and then continue to give supporting fire to the other evas as they worked their way through the enemy formations.  
  
She thought that she should feel more regret about those she whose lives she would be ending. But, she reasoned, they were like her, just following orders. And like her, they were individuals. And so they could decide to ignore those orders if they wished. She smiled. This new concept of following her own ideas instead of following orders opened up vast opportunities for her.  
  
She glanced up at the small timer that floated in the LCL next to her. It was not a physical presence, but more a projection in the LCL as a result of her direct link-up to the eva. If she so wished, a similar window would appear displaying topographical data on her surroundings transmitted from the support satellite, which floated in orbit many miles above her. When the timer reached zero she would fire her first shot. From then on, she would fire at her own discretion.  
  
She did not dwell too much on the upcoming battle. Her thoughts kept drifting to the evermore favourable ones about Shinji.   
  
----------------------------------------  
  
Asuka sat in her own entry plug, in a similar position to Art, on route to her drop off point. It would be a short trip; she was only going to be a few miles away from the base of operations. She was to distract them on the main battle line, whilst Cooper in his green eva would give them a surprise on their rear flank. A small flashing red light lit up on her command console on her lap.  
  
She looked up, a slight scowl on her face. There was virtually no pressure on her. The umbilical cable had been left attached to the eva, as she would not be travelling far from the airfield in any case. Her role was just that of distraction. No real value at all.   
  
The prideful part of her could not tolerate that. Why should that garstabeiter bastard get the real job? Did they not trust her or something?   
  
She sighed, and knew that was the truth. She was no longer reliable in an eva, despite the progress she had made. She hated them for that. She had worked so hard to bring herself back to her former glory, and yet they still treated her like a porcelain doll. True this was a better battlefield role than Rei's, which was merely long-range support, but still, it was not a far way from redundant.  
  
But on the other hand...  
  
She did not want to have to kill another human. She had never thought that this would be a problem she would ever have to face, even when she was fighting the production model evas. That was defence, pure and simple; they attacked her so she made them pay for that. But to actively go and hunt for the enemy to destroy, to snuff them out of existence for no apparent reason...  
  
That just did not seem right. She remembered her arrogant words to Misato during the Angel War, ' "Any good commander knows that the best defence is a good offence..."'. Fucking stupid words. And Misato had even quoted them back to her when she was protesting to going on this attack. Bitch.  
  
There was no description for what she felt now. No melody from her memory to affix to this new emotion. It was like it had been taken as being obvious and thus ignored by humanity. But at its fundamental core, she did not want to have to kill anyone. She did not think she could kill anyone. When it came to pulling the trigger against some poor bastard on the receiving end of a 4 metre long bullet when she was wrapped up safe in her eva, free from harm...  
  
She remembered how Shinji had looked after he had torn apart Touji's eva. She realised it was not quite the same, but the principle was it felt wrong to hurt another human. And she would not have the solace of not being in control. She would have to be the one telling her eva to pull the trigger. She always wondered why the renegade Unit 05 had beaten her so easily. True it had taken her by surprise, but still, she knew she was better than that. She half suspected that she had let herself be defeated, so that she would not have to worry about pulling the trigger.  
  
She shook that thought from her mind. That was not how she thought. Self-doubt was something that happened to other people, not her. But then, what had she been doing less than three months ago? Wallowing in her doubt of her abilities until it physically debilitated her. How much had she changed since going to Japan?   
  
How in the hell was she going to get through this.  
  
----------------------------------------  
  
The little flashing red light on his heads up display, stopped flashing. That meant he was twenty seconds from the target. He thumbed on all the eva controls, and the entry plug came to life around him. It flash through a series of psychedelic patterns, making Art wonder what exactly they had put in his LCL mix, before the external view came up. Nothing much, just the dark grey of the carrier craft he was in.   
  
He glanced down at the little cap badge, which hung from that handy loop.   
  
In a few seconds he would find out. In a few seconds he would either become a killer, or he would never be able to look himself in the mirror again. That was the real reason he was going to fight. Not for those people back home, not for some idealistic crusade. But so he could look those people back home in the eye, and tell them without lying, that he had done his best. And when he looked in the mirror he saw himself, and not some coward, too frightened to pull the trigger.  
  
The red light on his console went green.  
  
He pulled a small lever at the base of his chair, and he felt the eva shudder from its moorings on the carrier craft. The green eva slid out the back of the craft, hanging in mid-air, trailing after the carrier craft.  
  
In that brief instant of weightlessness, Art could see the entire battlefield. The enemy were not going to give up lightly. He could see tank columns and rows of artillery vehicles, with ant like infantrymen laced in between the armoured beasts.  
  
As gravity took a hold, his stomach lurched as the green eva accelerated to the ground.  
  
He grinned, a humourless expression of determination.  
  
"Here goes..."  
  
---------------------------------------  
  
The red light on Asuka's panel flashed green, and she pressed a button on her console, sending the eva out of the back of the carrier plane. In the distance, as the world emerged from behind the plane, she saw a flash of green hurtling towards the ground. That would be Cooper. Probably scared out of his cowardly mind.  
  
She looked down, and saw the drop zone.  
  
She saw tank formations.  
  
She saw men running in the sparse cover.  
  
She saw the long grey slab of concrete that ran along the ground, which was the roof of the under-ground factory.  
  
She saw the small box, which had been dropped below her, a small weapons locker for the eva, housing an assault rifle, and a dozen melee weapons.  
  
As the red eva began to fall to the ground, Asuka began to feel numb.  
  
She did not want to die.  
  
She did not want her friends to die. It occurred to her that she had very few friends. Real friends anyway. Not just the hangers on that had followed her around the school during those glorious days when she was popular. She could count maybe two people that were close friends. And both of them were hurt when she did not fight on.  
  
So maybe that was how she could pull the trigger.  
  
She would find out soon enough.  
  
--------------------------------------  
  
Next to Rei, the counter, which had floated in the LCL, reached zero.  
  
She had made her peace with pulling the trigger.  
  
Which she did so, without a moment's hesitation, sending a scarlet beam lancing out from the positron rifle, screaming towards the factory roof.  
  
-------------------------------------  
Authors notes: Ok, next chapter, next chapter we'll get some eva action. I promise.  
  
Honest.  
  
Will you please stop looking at me like that!  
  
pre-read by sprite 


	4. 4

Disclaimer: See first chapter.  
  
Right, let's get this action sequence done...  
Chapter 4  
The green eva thudded heavily on to the ground, sending up a small dust cloud around its feet. The force of the impact sent Art slamming into his harness as he was thrown forward, knocking the wind from him. After being hurled forward, his body was hurled back as the eva recovered, smacking his head on the headrest of the seat. The seat had been converted from an old ejector seat from a high altitude interceptor, and it creaked on its hinges.  
  
Art looked around him, slightly dazed and winded. Regaining his senses, he remembered procedure, and eyed on his comms, "This is 3, I'm down and bloody pissed at the guy who designed this harness."  
  
A familiar voice crackled across the open channel, "All right 3, go about the mission as planned, you only have four minutes of power left."  
  
"Yeah, ... what's the plan again?"  
  
"Don't play games!"  
  
Art grinned, "Sorry ma'am."  
  
The green eva rose from it's crouch. Art hit a couple of buttons on his armrest console, and an overlay appeared on the view screens in front of him. As he looked, he could see the other evangelions highlighted in a gold wire frame, even though they were obscured by scenery. Enemy columns were shown up on a red wire frame. He looked for a green box, which would be the weapons locker dropped somewhere nearby.   
  
(3mins50secs)  
  
The green wire frame box was overlaid on a couple of trees. 'The weapons drop box must be on the other side of them then.' He gripped the two joysticks that jutted out from the front of the seat, and guided the eva in the direction of the green box. When he was lined up with the box, he looked to both sides and rammed both sticks forward, sending the eva hurtling toward the tree line. He jumped clear of the trees.  
  
As he flew serial hundred feet in the air, he looked in the direction of the factory. He was in a roughly oval shaped valley, several kilometres across. In the distance he could see a flash of red as Unit 02 went about her business. In the middle of the valley there was a concrete rectangle in the ground, a few kilometres long. The rest of the valley was made up of a huge plane surrounding the concrete slab, with trees lining the plane and valley walls.  
  
As the green Eva fell towards the earth, Art caught sight of a column of what looked like tanks hauling ass towards him. He looked at them with dread as he realised there would be people in those armoured killing machines.  
  
He hit the ground next to the drop box, and ripped open the top. As he reached inside for the weapons, he noticed what appeared to be hinges on the inside of the side of the box. He looked around to see the box opening was in fact on the side. "Um... hope they don't need it again..." he gave a nervous laugh, " ... yeah... bugger."  
  
He grabbed the rifle out of the box, and flicked a few switches. This set off the auto-controls to position the rifle in the correct place, ready for him to shoot. The auto-controls were one of the many systems in the eva, which made it possible for it to be used as a war machine. For low synch. level pilots, such as Art, the auto-controls performed complex operations, such as putting a finger through a trigger guard. This system saved a lot of time, stopping the pilot from spending hours getting their eva's fingers into small holes. It also saved on rifles when they missed the hole. An eva is designed to rip through concrete blocks without noticing, and so the rifles were like Swiss cheese until the system was in place.  
  
When the rifle was secure in a firing position, and sent the eva sprinting through the tree line towards the slab. The slab itself was the roof of the enemy factory. Art was not sure on what they produced, that information was on a need to know basis, and as a pilot, the only thing he needed to know was where to point his gun. The tanks he had seen rolling towards him were outlined in red, so even though the trees obscured his view, he could see where they were.  
  
The eva burst through the tree line, sending tree trunks flying like matchsticks. He readied his rifle, aiming for the lead tank of the column. A purple bolt of energy was sent screaming towards the concrete factory roof. Art did not notice it hit, as he pulled the trigger, sending a volley of tracer rounds hurtling towards the tank column.  
  
The column disappeared in a shower of earth and fire as the rounds exploded on impact. Art did not have the luxury of time he thought he would have to reflect on the fact he had just killed a few dozen people.  
  
In fact, it was surprisingly easy.  
  
Then the dust cloud cleared, revealing the burnt out husks of the few remaining tanks, those that had not been buried under the dirt as it fell back to earth from being sent skyward. He was half glad that the resolution on his viewer was not good enough to make out individual bodies.  
  
(3mins20)  
  
He scanned the valley.   
  
The hilltops beyond the line of trees were clear, apart from a few Nerv self-propelled mortars, which had begun pounding away at the enemy troop formations. Art did not bother with them. His main concerns were well in the valley.  
  
For one thing, there was a fresh column of tanks hurtling from the factory gates, huge concrete holes in the ground that just seem to spew armoured death from its mouth. For another there was a line of artillery, all of which seemed to be indicating in a subtle way that when they started firing, no one was going to be happy.   
  
As a side thought his mind noted a series of infantry squads, stealthily working their way closer to the eva. But, they were only infantry. The eva barely had to worry about the artillery, let alone a few men with small arms.  
  
(3mins10)  
  
On the other hand, the trucks carrying his power supply *would* care about a few infantrymen, no matter how small their limbs were. So this left Art the tough choice of turning them into geography. But it hardly seemed fai-  
  
His thoughts were interrupted by a whistling noise. Lots of whistling noises. He saw the white trails loop lazily in the sky behind the missiles sent at his eva. Without even thinking, he sent his eva leaping to one side, and he watched the massive fireworks display as the missiles collided with the forest behind him. Would have been quite pretty had it not been for the fact they were aimed at him.  
  
He snapped his head around to see the artillery lines, the smoke trails from the missiles clearly pointing to who had just let loose several thousands of dollars worth of bonfire night specials. He set the viewer on maximum resolution, and could see a few bodies quickly exiting the artillery vehicles, as though they knew the pilot of the eva would not be very pleased with them.  
  
And he was not very pleased. The artillery line disappeared in a hail of explosive rounds. Well, at least half. The barrage had shaken up Art more than he thought, and his aim had been wildly off.   
  
(2mins55)  
  
The new tank column that had been racing from the factory was now moving at a more surreptitious rate. Nobody particularly wanted to be on the receiving end of the indestructible giants weapon of mass destruction. But, they were still a threat to his power cable carrying trucks. They could not be allowed to come any closer, especially if they were moving in his direction.  
  
The artillery fired again, although Art was too interested in the tanks to notice. He was also too busy to sot the firestorm that had appeared on the factory roof. If Art had a failing, and currently he was finding out that he had more than just a few, it would be the fact he tended to keep too close an eye on his objectives.  
  
To that end he dispassionately destroyed the armoured column. This took quite some doing. The last column had been tightly bundled together, as though huddling close to each other would provide protection from the nasty evas gun. All it had done was to leave Art with a bigger target, and allow him to use fewer rounds when taking them out. These buggers were all neatly spread out, and so a lot of the rounds were wasted on the gaps between tanks.  
  
(2mins35)  
  
It was after he had destroyed the tanks his eyes got around to telling his brain about the artillery firing. Which became a moot point as explosion blossomed on the evas A.T field. The blasts blacked out the forward vision, replacing the viewer with static as the explosion played merry hell with the Nerv connections. The concussive force of the multiple impacts sent the eva sliding back a few metres. Out of reflex, Art held one arm over his eyes, trying to shield himself from the missiles.  
  
When the barrage stopped, he saw that the eva was holding its arm in the same position. The rifle though, not having the luxury of an A.T field to protect it was covered with scorch marks and scrapes were the shrapnel had got to it. Art cursed the fact he had not yet learnt to spread his field. Sure he could keep it around himself, er, his eva like a cloak, and wrap it around his sword or prog. knife in a melee, but that was just his instinct working on over charge to keep the eva, um, himself safe.  
  
He was not happy. The scorch marks ruined the nice paint job done on the rifle.  
  
(2mins05)  
  
The eva once again gripped, the rifle in both hands. Art dropped it to its knees in classic marksman pose, and set the rifle square in his shoulder. This was a fairly pointless exercise. The only reason people do it was to keep the rifle steady with the recoil, but an eva was both strong enough and big enough to take the recoil of even this massive gun without flinching. But at least it made Art feel better. In the end that's all that really counts when piloting the bio-titan.  
  
He picked his targets carefully. He used the viewer n maximum scope to effectively snipe the artillery units whilst they desperately reloaded the big guns. But it was futile. The entire line of vehicles was destroyed, one shot per customer.  
  
He was surprised by a sudden constant thudding on his A.T field. He looked to his, um, the eva's side, and saw what appeared to be a group of survivors of the tank column he had destroyed. They had sneaked up on him whilst he was dealing with the artillery.  
  
(1min35)  
  
The green goliath turned and blasted the few tanks, the boy pilot's eyes seemingly distant as he extinguished this threat to hi mission. They exploded spectacularly. Art thought that the explosions looked quite good when they got this close.  
  
Now he had time to deal with the remaining squads of infantry. They were quite close now though. He was shocked at how close they had gotten in such a short time. Why, it could only be a few seconds since he first saw them. Then he checked the battery charge remaining counter. Ohshit.  
  
He got a good look at them. Most were carrying RPG's, the one shot disposable ones that many a common squaddie got lumbered with if the top brass thought there would be something heavy on wheels in the area. A few unfortunate buggers were stuck lugging around an authentic tank hunter system, the true missile launchers used for taking down heavy armour, bulky infrared sighting equipment and all.  
  
Almost robotically he aimed the rifle at them. He was about to pull the trigger when he realised just what the hell he was doing.  
  
(1min15)  
  
Art watched, momentarily paralysed with shock at how easily it had all come to him, the first of the RPGs streaking towards him. Those were people in those tanks. And he had barely given it a moments thought.  
  
The grenades hit, causing his A.T field to ripple in front of his eyes. These were people as well. But he had just been ready to shoot at them as though they did not matter. He was appalled with himself. He has become a merciless killer, giving no regard, even a little disdain to the people he had just killed. He was half tempted to stop now, and just let these poor bastards at least get away with their lives.  
  
The radio crackled, "Supply to three, supply to three, is the way clear? Over." Then again, others were counting on him for their protection.  
  
Without any more doubt, he pulled the trigger, sending golden bolts of death streaking towards the squads. They had even less chance than the tanks.  
  
(40 secs)  
  
"Three to supply, way is clear, over."  
  
He heard the trucks roll in behind him, whilst he kept a keen lookout for any fool who tried to attack now.  
  
(20 secs)  
  
The cable for the eva was plugged in. He could relax. At least for now.  
  
He looked at the damage he had done. The still burning husks of the artillery vehicles. The flipped over tanks. The brown patches where the bullets had struck the ground, making the earth fly high into the sky and fall to the ground again. He consciously ignored the remains of the infantry squads.  
  
He was amazed at how, ... cold he had been.  
  
--------------------------------------  
  
Misato let out a breath she did not realise she was holding. It was a sigh of relief, not that the boy has managed to stay alive, but that the plan was not a complete write-off. Well, she was half glad the boy made it. The paper work for casualties was staggering.  
  
She turned to Maya. They were in the cramped mobile command vehicle, a far cry from the spacious command centre with it's twenty foot high monitors. She put a hand on Maya's shoulder, "How's Asuka doing?"  
  
Maya barely looked up from her screen, "She appears to be doing fine. Her eva is in great shape, and her synch ratio is holding stable, and the destrudo count..."  
  
Misato stopped listening as the techno-babble washed over her head. In fact, she had stopped listening at the words, 'she's doing fine'. She let her mind wander over the plan they originally had.  
  
Rei was supposed to crack open the roof of the factory with the positron rifle, just open enough for an eva to get inside and cause as much damage as possible. The factory produced the latest model of Jet Alones, the JA Mk.II. These were fairly impressive beasts. They had removed the bulky nuclear reactor system, and replaced it with a... complicated battery thing. Misato was not really sure what it was, but she knew the buggers could run at maximum power for over a day. They also had a shoulder mounted ... big ass gun. Again, Misato had ignored the techno-babble, but the nickname had been clear enough. A.T. field busters. And that was why the factory had to go. Having these robots running around with such huge guns would compromise Nerv's tactical superiority. It might even give the other guys a fair chance.  
  
So, they had opted to lay waste to the factory. But the rifle shot had just burned a neat hole into the factory roof. Maya had told her the structural integrity of the roof had been weakened, but it meant that the ground troops that Misato had in reserve would have to be used. They had been sent in five minutes ago, and were currently infiltrating the factory with extreme prejudice.  
  
Misato interrupted Maya's techno-babble, "How are the ground troops doing?"  
  
Maya sighed. She knew about Misato's tendency to drift in and out of conversations that involved too many scientific specifications, and had in fact been talking about what was on TV recently. She brought up the command console for the troops. "They're being pinned down by heavy resistance..."  
  
----------------------------------  
  
Asuka was trying to work out if she was annoyed relieved or jus plain angry. She had been set down a few klicks from her original drop zone, and it had taken her e while to find her weapons drop box, and now that she did have a rifle, the little men and their toy tanks were running away.  
  
She had fired a few half-hearted shots at their backs, but it had seemed fairly pointless. She could not get them at this range anyway, and their constant jinking as they fled across the valley floor made sure she was just wasting her shots.  
  
Still, it was quite a good thing. If she kept walking forward, she'd be at that damned factory in about ten minutes, and that would just be fine by her. Another good aspect was the fact she had not really killed anybody yet.   
  
But even that annoyed her a little, partly because you had to work very hard not to annoy Asuka. She was expecting to find out where she drew her lines, and these little cowards would not even have the courage to face her. It was just so damned, *annoying*. If they had stuck around, there was a good chance she would not pull the trigger. A small traitorous part of her said, yes, but would *you* want to stick around to find out?  
  
And that little voice made her angry.   
  
"At least the scenery is nice," she said out loud as her eva plodded onwards. No one in the command centre seemed to want to draw attention to the fact, that if she moved a little bit quicker, the enemy would be in range.  
  
----------------------------------  
  
Rei carefully sighted along the rifle, and gently squeezed the trigger, sending a scarlet beam out. It obliterated a tank that had been trying to outmanoeuvre Unit 02. She sighed inwardly. Pilot Sohryu seemed to be actively ignoring the enemy.  
  
On the other hand, it gave Rei something to do.   
  
She was vaguely aware that some people frowned upon the destruction of human life, particularly if it was an efficient way, such as de-atomising them. That was a word she had learnt from watching old sci-fi movies. She quite liked it. It had a certain clinical quality to it.   
  
But it seemed to her that all those people who often gave you stern looks if you told them about it, had never sat in a machine of war in their entire lives. Then again, her entire knowledge of people like that had come from the old sci-fi movies she had borrowed off Lieutenant Hyuga, so she was hardly in a position to debate the point.  
  
What she was in position for was another shot at a tank that had begun to circle PilotCoo- Art's eva. She sighed inwardly, something quite hard to do she had found, before she realised it was just a metaphor. She sighted in the tank, and squeezed the trigger. It vanished in a cloud of dust and electric flashes.  
  
When you got right down to it, this was not what she would call fun, and Rei had a very clear definition on that word, as she did most things. And that seemed to be the problem all those people with the frowns had, people revelling in the slaughter, as they had put it. And she did not enjoy this. This was more like work.  
  
Frankly, it bored her.  
  
------------------------------------  
  
A worried lieutenant looked at the reports on his screen. He was supposedly in a safe area, a command bunker deep within the factory. But the reports he kept getting did not make him feel safe at all. He was not particularly worried about the reports themselves, but he had a slow sinking feeling in his gut as he realised he would have to tell the 'old man' about this news. And it was not good.  
  
He swallowed hard. "Sir?"  
  
The 'old man' stirred in his seat. It was a trick, the lieutenant knew. The 'old man' was always watching, but he pretended not to be. When he let that rumour circulate, efficiency had improved dramatically. Nothing made a more efficient worker than one who does not know when the boss is looking. "Yes?" he said in a voice that was coolly calculated to tell you that while you had important information, you should really not be wasting my time, so hurry up. This old man was talented.  
  
The lieutenant swallowed hard again. "The troops sir. They're, um, nearly all dead sir. And those that aren't are running as fast as their engines are allowing, sir. And, sir, some are even trying to surrender sir. Sir." He threw in a couple of extra 'sirs'. Superiors always felt more comfortable when they were called sir a lot.  
  
"Running away," the old man said absently.   
  
This made the lieutenant more nervous. "It- .. It's the green one sir. They say it's wiping them out all along one side, sir. And, sir, they say there's another one just spitting death at them, sir, that they can't see, sir, like God was smiting them, sir. And, sir, the red one, sir, hasn't done anything yet, sir, and they're really pis- scared about that, sir."  
  
"Well, send in the Jet Alones. This is what they are built for."  
  
"B-but sir, which ones?"  
  
"All of them."  
  
"B-b-but sir! Half of them aren't even operational, sir!"  
  
"Think of them as a decoy then. How is the defence inside the factory going?"  
  
The lieutenant swallowed harder this time. "Sir, not, sir, very well sir.  
  
"Oh really? Where have they got up to?"  
  
"Si-"  
  
"And say sir one more time and I will deal with you. Remember your former superior?"  
  
"Sorry, si-!" he clamped a hand over his mouth. The stories about the 'old man' were legendary. There were things, people had said, such amazing things you could do with a hole punch if you put your mind to it. Then again, they also said that he was part of a conspiracy to destroy the world, but no one really believed that. But a hole punch you could really believe in.  
  
"Where are they?"  
  
There was a bang on the bunker door.   
  
The lieutenant looked at the 'old man', his eyes wide with terror. "Very close s-!"  
  
"I see. Take care of this for me, will you?" The 'old man' rose from his seat, and walked away.  
  
'He's got to be joking.' "Um, s- um, commander?"  
  
"Sir?"  
  
And the 'old man' was gone. About ten minutes later the door burst in, and hole punches were no longer at the forefront of the young lieutenant's mind.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED...  
  
Sorry it's so damn late, but frankly I've been up to my neck in work. Anyway, I promised red-hot eva action, and here it is, although, it's not quite finished yet. Next chapter includes red-hot eva action, news from back home, and quite possible Shinji, if the bugger can get off his lazy arse and do his duty as a character that is. 


	5. 5

Disclaimer: Evangelion me owns not. Fic not for profit is. Remove immediately if so wish the producers. Learn grammar must do.  
  
Ok, I just can't keep writing non-stop action, so interspersed is some random stuff, some fluffy stuff, some cold hearted stuff, some stuff stuff and some secretive stuff. There's a lot of stuff.  
  
I'm sorry for not posting in a while, but I've been busy as hell, and ... well, it's here now. I promise to get the next chapter out faster. Or at least within two months. Before the end of the year.  
  
....  
  
Stop looking at me like that!  
  
Chapter 5  
  
Black-clad men darted around the now silent command bunker. The last screams of the dying had been finally silenced by a quick burst of rifle fire. There had been surprisingly little resistance after the bunker door. It appeared that it was not just Nerv that had its defense budget slashed. The poor bastards never stood a chance against the elite soldiers.  
  
However, the only Nerv personnel were the officers. The regular infantry men had been borrowed from a variety of US troop formations. Although, if asked they would hastily cover up their stars and stripe patch and defiantly deny this. Already the Nerv officers were starting to get annoyed at their gung ho attitude to the interior warfare. Instead of taking prudent action, they were far happier to use explosives and to simply fill corridors with a hail of lead.  
  
One particular Nerv officer was pacing up and down behind the primary command console for the factories defenses... Watch him. He is looking for something. His eyes are never in the same spot twice, and they keep scanning computer screens. Unlike the other Nerv officers his sidearm was not in a ready position, it was still in the holster. But this particular officer had made his living by only using his gun when all of his other option had run dry.  
  
Eventually his eyes came to rest over a series of switches. Above each of the switches was bold red lettering, declaring this to be the launch panel for the factory's major product. And all of them, it appeared, had been flipped.  
  
The officer shook his head slightly, and ordered one of his men to radio base ops with this information, and went back to his search, his squad looking at him with the same apprehension of people who are trapped in a cage with a tiger.. Which has not been fed. In two weeks.  
  
-----------------------------------  
  
"Major! Reports from the ground troops indicate that-"  
  
"New targets! Readings suggest that-"  
  
"Major! We have reports from the front lines-"  
  
"One at a time damn it!"  
  
-------------------------------  
  
"Cooper, multiple contacts surrounding your area, be on the look out for some Jet Alones."  
  
Art stared blankly at the small 'audio only' window that was barking orders at him. "Major, what the hell is a Jet Alone?"  
  
His question was answered by huge human-like figures rising from the ground around him, probably from underground launch tubes. He shrugged, "Never mind. They're here now, what do you want me to do?"  
  
"Neutralize the threat, Command out."  
  
Art sighed, "That easy huh?" He moved the Eva back to the armoury box, refreshing the magazine for his assault rifle and taking out the hefty broadsword. It glinted in the sunlight, a true testament to the lengths some people will go to, to compensate for their shortcomings.  
  
Then the human-like figures attacked.  
  
----------------------------  
  
"Asuka, watch your back, they're sending up-"  
  
"Jet Alones?" She asked through clenched teeth.  
  
The com was silent for a few seconds. "How'd you know?" Misato hesitantly asked.  
  
"Oh just women's intuition," she responded, commanding her Eva to push the broken robot off her axe.  
  
---------------------------  
  
"Rei?"  
  
"Yes major, I know of the new threat." Rei gently squeezed the trigger, blasting apart another of the constructs as it lumbered towards her.  
  
"Well... good. If it gets too hot I want you to retreat. Your Eva's still unpredictable from the regeneration."  
  
---------------------------  
  
"Hey new kid! She said run!"  
  
Shinji ignored the two behind him as they jostled his shoulders, trying to force him to comply with the order. But he just sat there, in his entry plug seat, eyes focused on the glowing red emblem in the centre of what for all the world looked like a giant lobster. He was entranced by the strange feeling of inevitability as he repeated his mantra of not running away. The dagger hummed in his Eva's hand, and he could feel the vibrations right through the interface. It tickled slightly.  
  
Touji gave him one final shove, before giving up. Kensuke kept jostling him for a while before following suite, his pleas for him to run fading out slowly as though someone applied a muffler. The world seemed to slow into a warm, dark, liquidy stillness.   
  
There was silence for a while, the pressure of the knife in the Eva's hand still very clear to Shinji. He was feeling nothing but an odd curiosity at this point, nothing like the absolute fear of failure that was the hallmark of his previous experience. The intimate knowledge of knowing that it was no longer just your life on the line was strong enough to push him into disobeying a direct order.   
  
But then again, it was not that.  
  
"So why didn't you run away?" Kensuke asked. His voice seemed bright and fairly jovial, as though it was just another meaningless conversation about TV or Touji's latest caper in his never ending quest to annoy the class rep.   
  
Shinji did not respond. This world just seemed too surreal to take seriously, so why should he answer this figment of his imagination. His mind threw up a few reasons, that one; he was your friend, two; it's really you asking, and three; I don't know about you, but I'd like to wake up soon.  
  
Shinji idly wondered when his mind had gotten so out-spoken.  
  
"C'mon Shinji, you can tell us," said his minds picture of Touji, a hand coming to rest on his shoulder in a reassuring way. In the way he always wished would happen in his own life. Just a simple gesture that meant that the person who owned the hand was his friend.  
  
But he could still not answer. Not because he did not want to. But because he did not know himself.  
  
"All-right," said Kensuke lightly, "We'll guess for a while."  
  
"Sounds cool to me. So confess Ikari, you didn't run away because you wanted to impress the girls, right?"  
  
Shinji heard Kensuke smack Touji around the back of the head, an action that probably took quite some effort in the LCL environment, "Idiot, Shinji's only got his eyes on Ayanami, you know that!"  
  
"Well, to impress Ayanami then," Touji countered defensively, rubbing the back of his head, more through habit than real pain. Which was really stupid, as Shinji had never observed this habit before.  
  
"I don't know, Shinji was never the voyeuristic type. Besides, I thought it was because he wanted to prove himself to his father-"  
  
"Oh come on! Shinji hates this Eva stuff, and his father by extension. Why in God's name would he want to prove himself to that bastard."  
  
"Well, this is Shinji we're talking about."  
  
"Yeah, but even Shinji has a small amount of pride."  
  
"How'd you figure?"  
  
"... You got a point there-"  
  
"Okay, so it's not to impress girls, or to prove himself to Ikari senior." Shinji wondered when Kensuke had ever even met his father, before realizing that it was not really Kensuke, just the anthropomorphic projection of his most Kensuke-like aspect.   
  
Both Kensuke and Touji looked at him. "Since when did you know about psychology?" Kensuke asked.  
  
"Remember those books Asuka got for a joke?" Touji replied.  
  
"Dear god man."  
  
"He only skim-read, anyway, we're off the point. I think it might've been to prove that he could do it on his own, without the scary shit of the Eva going nuts."  
  
"Nah, he doesn't like confrontation, why would he want to prove he could do it?"  
  
"Argh! Shinji just tell us damn it!"  
  
"Yeah, come on. We can't keep taking shots at your inner psyche forever you know."  
  
Shinji mumbled out a response. "Er... a bit louder for those of us not using hearing aids."  
  
"No reason..." Shinji said, quite clearly.  
  
"Well there's gotta be a reason, otherwise what's the point in doing anything?!" Touji exclaimed.  
  
"Well..." He could not explain it. Or he could, but it would take an eon... How can you fully describe the feeling? It was something you felt, and acted upon. Reasons and excuses are something you add later when you report to other people, so that you don't look like a complete fool. But the feeling is the thing that makes you act.   
  
He smiled. He had his answer. "It just felt right."  
  
He could feel the smiles of his two friends behind him.  
  
"Good answer."  
  
----------------------------  
  
Art rammed his broadsword into the Jet alone in front of him, sparks flying from the wound as the ultrasonic weapon bit deep into the metallic flesh. He pressed the barrel of his rifle to the monstrosity's chest and fired a hail of bolts into the thing at point blank range. A large hole appeared in the jet alones back as the heavy lead flung it's way clean through the body.   
  
With a grunt of perceived exertion Art brought the Eva's foot up, and kicked the stricken robot a short way from the Eva, dragging the broadsword out with a stylized flourish. He swung the sword around again slicing the upper torso off, accompanied by a satisfying explosion as the fuel cells lost containment.  
  
He twisted his head to see a scarlet streak of light lance out at him. He hit a combination on his arm pad controls, sending the command to dodge to the Eva... The beam passed within a few feet of the flinching giant, a pale green welt appearing across the darker armour from the extreme temperature of the shot. Art swung around the rifle, losing a volley at the firer, a jet alone with a large gun like extension for one arm. The other arm was a bulky targeting system, weighted for balance rather than actual usefulness in combat.  
  
However, a weak spot is a weak spot, especially for a remote drone. Art fired a burst at the targeting matrix, the box like structure disintegrating under the barrage. The robot staggered a little to the heavier side with the gun. Before it could recover Art was already hurtling his Eva through the air, using the broadsword in a strong overhead stroke, bisecting the giant from head to groin.  
  
It seemed to fall apart in two halves, before fuel cells were ignited by shattered electronics. The two halves became a raging inferno, with Art's Eva still in the middle with the broad sword digging into the ground.  
  
A robotic foot bounced off his AT field on his back. Art grinned, "Backstabber, eh?" he said, swinging the sword from the ground trailing dirt and engine oil, sending it in a tight arc around his head. There was a good, satisfying slinky sound as it sliced the jet alone behind him in two. It fell apart, and Art was vaguely disappointed when it did not explode like the others.  
  
Art almost laughed as another group appeared on his radar. Despite the life threatening situation, and the guilt he felt over killing the squaddies barely ten minutes before, it was still one of the better ways to spend away from school.  
  
-------(flash back- yeah i know this looks lame)-------------------------  
  
iThe lunch room was pretty noisy, Art decided. He grinned, it was just like back home. On his red plastic tray was what looked a lot like a sandwich, but the cling film had deformed it into something vaguely shaped like a mole, bits of ham and salad caught in between numerous folds of the cellophane. He smiled at that too, another reminder that things were basically the same even half way around the world...  
  
He stopped off at a vending machine to feed his caffeine addiction, catching sight of a pissed Hikari in the corner of his eye. Grabbing his can of coke, he walked into the main part of the cafeteria, a large hall like room, with a few groups dotted around on the tables. He guessed the majority of the students ate elsewhere, but he did not know where. Despite being fairly fluent in the language he had no idea about Japanese customs, so he basically stuck with his British ones. Hopefully someone would point it out to him when he was doing something insulting.  
  
As he scanned the room he spotted the only person he knew, apart from the brown haired girl with a look of murder in her eyes. Rei was seated around a table in the corner of the room next to a window, a look of concentration on her face as she poked the sandwich on her tray. Art looked down at his own cellophane wrapped molewhich, wondering why she was doing that.   
  
As he passed Hikari's table he noticed her and the red head pilot. Hikari was shooting him with the same death glare as she had done from the beginning of her 'tour', but the red head just seemed to look on with an air of annoyed amusement. He grinned, and winked at Hikari, and was rewarded with wild gesticulating, which he caught in the corner of his eye as he passed.  
  
Chuckling lightly, he headed towards Rei, aware of at least two sets of eyes on him. He sat down, Rei giving him an odd look, to which he only smiled at. Holding the smile he whispered to Rei, "Are they still looking?"  
  
Rei's expression formed again into its usually blank face. "No."  
  
Art sighed, "Good, can't really eat when people are paying close attention to me." 'So genius why'd you sit here? You know she's going to give you that blank stare.' Art mentally frowned, 'You know I can't turn down a challenge.' His alter psyche seemed to grin back, 'Oh, and the fact that you're interested in her has nothing to do with it?' "Oh shut up."  
  
Rei looked up from the sandwich she was carefully unwrapping, a questioning look on her face. Art smiled nervously, "Er, not you..."  
  
Rei went back to the task at hand. 'You're losing it kid,' Art thought to himself./i  
  
------(end flashback - once again, I apologise for the lameness)--------------------------  
  
"Damn it Hikari why did you let him out?!"  
  
"I didn't he escaped!"  
  
"Well why'd you drag me into it?!?"  
  
"What else would you be doing?! Sitting in front of your monitor reading creepy fan fiction?!"  
  
"Hey, some of that stuff is good!"  
  
Hikari was angry. That damned penguin had slipped out of her backdoor when her little sister was taking out the trash. Why she had agreed to look after the little perverted waterfowl was beyond her.  
  
She ranted in the confines of her head about too much pressure and the penguin being a damn pain anyway etc. The usual for someone who has realised they are in quite a lot of trouble and looking for someone to blame. The problem was she could not see how this could be anyone's fault except her own. Which was infuriating.  
  
Hikari sat down on a nearby bench in disgust. Hunching over, she rested her chin in her hands, knees on her elbows, glaring moodily at a street lamp across the road. Kensuke, noticing the change in pace, sat down next to her, leaving a fair amount of space between them. He leant back, his arm falling across the backrest. They sat in silence for a while.  
  
"If you don't want to you don't have to stick around. Just go home."  
  
"And leave my only friend alone?"  
  
Hikari smiled at the boy's casual remark. He was looking out across the street, just staring at things that were not there. Hikari took this time to really notice Kensuke. It was funny how someone could just turn into a cardboard image, especially when they seemed permanently attached to the boy she was really interested in. She had always seen him as the annoying hanger on to Touji.   
  
Recently, that image started to shift. He was still annoying, always making wisecracks about something she did, but she started to see his other side. The side of him that he did not present to people, that part of a person you only found out about when they put down their barriers. He was the annoying stooge, but he was also the boy who had dragged himself from bed at midnight to help her find a lost penguin.  
  
She looked at him, noting the blank expression. He always hid what he really felt. Oh sometimes he would be mopy and sometimes you could not stop him grinning, like you would expect from any other normal person, but when there was something on his mind he never burdened anyone with it. At least, never bothered her.  
  
Kensuke felt her eyes on him, and turned his head, catching her smile and returning it, before resuming his blank stare.  
  
"So how's things?" Hikari asked, hoping that a conversation would forestall the on coming blush.  
  
"Well, school currently sucks. The fact that a lot of my friends are gone sucks. The shows on TV all suck. I was thinking of taking up drugs, but I have a feeling that they are gonna suck too. You?"  
  
Hikari suppressed a laugh, "Well, pretty much the same. Except school has been better. Less people in our class means less work as class rep."  
  
"Aww, come on, you love the power."  
  
"You'd think that, but when I have to deal with the likes of you three stooges; I wish I was just one of the girls giggling in the background."  
  
"Yeah I guess we rode you pretty hard." He looked confused for a moment, "You? Giggle?"  
  
"Hey, I giggle!" she said shortly, "Occasionally," she added after some thought.  
  
"Never thought you'd be the type to giggle."  
  
"Not around you obviously, I had to shout at you guys most of the time."  
  
"Well, in the absence of the other stooges I would like to extend an official apology from our organization of idiocy," Kensuke said grinning.  
  
"Well, you weren't all that bad. At least you didn't have," Hikari shivered, "Issues."  
  
"Issues?"  
  
"You know, things like bad grades, bad relationships, personal stuff. And a few other things which you really don't want to know about."  
  
"Oh... issues... nope, never had any of them. Yep, I'm completely issue free, not a care in the world, couldn't be happier."  
  
"Oh no..."  
  
"Well... maybe just a few..."  
  
"Damn you Aida."  
  
"Oh come on."  
  
"All right," she sighed, "Tell me your problems."  
  
"You're a well of compassion you know that?" Kensuke responded sarcastically.  
  
There was a long, uncomfortable silence. Hikari fidgeted whilst Kensuke glared at the opposite street lamp.  
  
"I'm... sorry..."  
  
"Oh don't be," he said wearily.  
  
"It's just, there's been so much going on recently..."  
  
"I know. The angels really messed things up didn't they?"  
  
"Not that..."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Well, it's related to that, I guess."  
  
"Whaddya mean?"  
  
"You remember how Touji's sister got hurt in the first angel attack?"  
  
Kensuke nodded.  
  
"Stuff like that happened a lot. Families got torn apart. Some just couldn't take the pressure and broke apart. When that happens, the people you look to in your family to talk to about your problems are in no condition to help you."  
  
"So they turn to their class rep?"  
  
"They say it's because they trust me, but really it's because they think I'm a complete stranger who just doesn't care about their problems. They treat me like a wall they can hurl their hurt at."  
  
Kensuke could not offer any response, beyond that of 'Gee that sucks.' He did not think it was appropriate right now, so he wisely kept his mouth shut.  
  
"Well, when they all talk to me about their problems, I empathize with them. It's just so... depressing sometimes. And you can't turn it back on them, tell them how you feel. Not when you still have the family you grew up with around you."  
  
Pause.  
  
"And, with Asuka gone, it was really hard for me to get by. Now she's back she's so fragile, I can't just unload on her..."  
  
"I guess."  
  
"So now look at me, all bent out of shape over a lost bird and telling my problems to a friend who has problems of his own, when I should have been asking him about what was bugging him,   
  
and ..."  
  
"Hey! Easy. You're going through a lot of stuff. You don't have to be the ever smiling wall to lean on."  
  
Hikari sighed, "I know. But it's nice to hear someone else say it so I don't sound like a cry-baby."  
  
"No problem. But..."  
  
"What?"  
  
"..." Kensuke was about to say something when movement caught his eye. A squat figure waddling down the street. "It's Penpen!"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
Kensuke was up and off the bench, hurtling towards the waterfowl, who had turned when he heard his name shouted. He quickened his pace; cursing the fact he was not born an ostrich.  
  
Hikari stood, rather more sedately from the bench, dusting off her coat, before following the boy in his bird hunt.  
  
--------------------------------------  
  
Rei let her breath go out slowly, as she depressed the trigger, sending another scarlet beam of death towards the lumbering robots. The Jet Alone was skewered by the beam, secondary explosions bulging out the armour before the primary fuel cells ignited, shattering her target form the inside out.  
  
She quickly tapped a command for a new target. The three targeting circles came together almost instantly; the cobalt Eva moving the merest fraction to aim at the giant Mecha. A shrill sound emitted in her ear, indicating the positron rifle had a good lock. Again she depressed the trigger, and another bolt flew forth, piercing the giant robots armour, simply destroying vital connections in the spinal column. The bot fell forward, a lifeless metallic corpse.  
  
Rei was slightly worried. The rifle was not designed for this kind of multiple firing, and was fast becoming less effective. Worse still, the fuses that needed to be replaced after every fifth shot or so were running low. And the generator for the rifle was operating at dangerously high heat and power levels.   
  
And to make matters more disconcerting, the shambling horde of Mecha was getting closer.  
  
------------------------------------  
  
It was an odd feeling for the grey haired man, as he hobbled down a catwalk. It was a feeing that you never encountered much when you regularly spent the lives of thousands of people, often at the same time.  
  
But it was definitely there. A faint feeling of regret. He scarcely imagined it possible; the parts of him that had been replaced with the latest in robotics to lengthen his life had taken away all but the necessary glands and organs necessary to produce the appropriate chemical for emotion. Consequently he felt no anger, no jealousy, and no lust. The only feelings that he was aware of was his sense of self preservation and his duty to mankind.  
  
But the regret was still there. Was it because he had left that fresh-faced lieutenant to face the faceless Nerv soldiers alone? No, the lieutenant was a fool, and insignificant to the grander picture. Nerv was almost doing the world a favour by removing him from existence. So why... ah. He had left his favourite mug behind. You could not buy that mug any more; the company that had produced it had winked off the face of the earth during the second impact.  
  
Oh well, when making an escape sacrifices had to be made. And he owed much of his life to perfecting the art of running away. He always planned an escape route, and this particular one started with the monorail system that ran the length of the factory.  
  
He rounded a corner, to see the monorail car resting in pieces under a pile of rubble. He sighed, and began the long walk down the factory. It was a few miles, and would take several hours at his top speed. That did not matter, the vehicle he had procured for his discrete exit was one of the finest stealth craft of the day. He could take his leave when he wanted.  
  
The sounds of the battle far overhead seemed insignificant to the click of a cane on the factory floor.  
  
-----------------------------------  
  
Asuka swung her axe around slicing a pair of the giant robots across the waist. There was a small animalistic glint in her eye, along with the smug smirk that had blossomed on her face.   
  
It was not that she was happy with the delightful slaughter of the remote operated jokes, but it was more like she was proud of doing something useful at least. And besides, it was just like sparring against Shinji in the simulators, way back when the angels were regarded as the major threat. It was a chance to dust the cobwebs off of her melee skills, instead of all this stupid shooting at people running away.  
  
The look in her eye as she decapitated the nearest bot was almost joyful. She swung the axe down again, slicing it in two. Casting the Eva's hand out to her left she sent elongated octagonal lines from her arm, slamming the jet alone to her left into the air, an octagonal shaped dent crunching it's way into the frame.  
  
Ok, maybe the slaughter of the robots was a big factor in the happy feeling.  
  
----------------------------------  
  
Maya looked in confusion at her radar window, in the upper left hand corner of her screen. It showed two new contacts, moving in at high speeds towards the combat zone. She assumed that they were aircraft, since the altitude was the same as a low flying strike fighter, but the contacts were much too large to be fighters. Something of that size would be an Eva Hauler, the nickname for one of the huge carrier craft that shipped the Eva's. But planes of that size were never that close to the ground.   
  
"Major, I have two new contacts, moving inbound at a speed and altitude comparable to aircraft."  
  
"Bombers?"  
  
"No ma'am, signature suggests something much bigger."  
  
"Where are they heading?"  
  
"Into Unit 02's combat zone."  
  
Misato frowned, "More Jet Alones? Did they make airborne versions?"  
  
--------------------------------  
  
As warning systems popped up around the command bunker, the lone Nerv officer found what he was looking for. He had finally given up on his gawking squad, splitting them up to bolster some of the other squads who were below strength from the vicious close quarter gun fight. Besides, they were getting on his nerves.  
  
But that did not matter now. He had found the small, near impossible to find door. This was the way he had come. His target. Usually he did not go in for this kind of mission, but there was more at stake than just his principles.  
  
He did not even bother to find the mechanism for opening the door, merely producing some plastic explosive from one of his pouches. This was not standard equipment, but this particular officer was not a standard soldier. Technically, he was not even part of Nerv.  
  
He sighed, and set to work, applying the explosive to where he thought the hidden door was.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED....  
  
Pre-read by Monkey-san (although it took you long enough... hey who am I to judge)  
  
Pre-read by spriteh (who was a damn sight quicker)  
  
Looked over by Non-believer (shorter still)  
  
Glanced at by my dog when he was begging to be fed (fastest to date). I should probably go feed him now... 


	6. 6

Disclaimer: Not mine etc etc.  
  
A/N: Wow, this has been sitting on my hard drive for quite some time. The knife fight scene was one of the first parts I wrote for this series, and I'm fairly proud of it. Anyway, please review, I need to know about the quality of this action writing.   
  
Despite the fact I detest responding to reviews in a fic (just seems like a bloody waste of time to me), the plain fact is some of you want Art out. I could write an essay as to why I want him in here, but frankly I don't have the time, nor the inclination. If you want to give it a try, there's this handy little button at the bottom of the page marked 'review'. So you tell me, "Why would I have Arthur Cooper in this fic?"  
  
Yes, I realise I'm being lazy, but ff.net is getting annoyed at chapter long authors notes. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it ^_^;;   
  
Er... those guy's who had questions, check the bottom of the page.  
  
Chapter 6  
  
"Major, I have two new contacts, moving inbound at a speed and altitude comparable to aircraft."  
  
"Bombers?"  
  
"No ma'am, signature suggests something much bigger."  
  
"Where are they heading?"  
  
"Into Unit 02's combat zone."  
  
Misato frowned, "More Jet Alones? Did they make airborne versions?"  
  
--------------------------  
  
Two silhouettes graced the ground, speeding towards a little known valley. In this valley the sounds of battle were heard, shots from rifles, canon, and at this distance the soft whisper of rockets.  
  
The silhouettes belonged to two divine shapes, caressing the sky in an elegant display of flight. Two angelically white figures, far above the petty concerns of the world below them.  
  
Majestically their mighty pinions beat, as they gracefully defied gravity. Massive wings of a pure white, dove-like in their beauty.  
  
But two sharp lines fracture the soft lines of their otherwise harmonious shadows. Two long weapons that glint in the day light. Two lengthy shafts, topped with a blade as brilliant as chrome.   
  
Then, as though responding to some unheard command, or some unseen signal, both of the seraphim snapped their wings closed. Such a perfect display of synchronicity.  
  
Their wing span now gone, hey begin to lose altitude. Like the morning star, the production model evas fell to earth.  
  
please note: the spears are not the copies of the lance of loginus seen in EoE, they are just plain old spears... er, except they're eva sized  
  
-----------------------  
  
Asuka smirked. 'Oh goodie,' she thought to herself, as the two newcomers landed a few hundred metres from her. It was a welcome change from the ants of the factory's defence force.   
  
"Only two? How thoughtless," she said mockingly, even though she knew they could not hear her. It would have been nice for a little more of them to turn up. About five would do, something she could really get her teeth into. These two would barely provide a warm up.  
  
Unit 02 stood out in the middle of a large field, a clear target. No doubt they had chosen her as a target as she was the most prominent eva. Despite her pride she was no fool, she knew the only reason they had gone after her was because she was the first eva they had seen. Besides, it made no sense for them to deliberately head hunt the toughest target.  
  
They had set down in front of her, their spears' levelled at her eva, no doubt pointing dramatically to her core. They were equidistant from her, one to her forward left, one to her forward right. The one on the left seemed to be inching forward though. She summarised that one was the leader of the pair. It was obvious that he would be the harder opponent. On the other hand, that one might be a subordinate being used as a human shield. Either way, she was confident she could take them.  
  
"Asuka?"  
  
"Yes Misato?"  
  
"Don't take any risks with them. You're the only one with any real experience for this kind of fight, and the others are tied up with jet alones. That means you're on your own."  
  
"I wasn't counting on their help anyway, Misato."  
  
"Even so, be careful. We don't have a lot of data on these guys."  
  
"Yeah right..."  
  
The eva closest to her lunged forward with it's spear.  
  
-------------------------  
  
Art slammed the butt of his rifle into the last Jet Alone in his immediate vicinity, neatly crunching a gun shaped hole in the huge mecha. It staggered back under the force, Art pushing his eva to follow, swinging around with the broadsword in an ugly cumbersome arc. The top half of the stricken robot slid off, revealing it's inner workings, making Art smile with the satisfaction of a foe well vanquished. He frowned as he realised how stupid his thoughts were sounding.   
  
"Major, all targets taken care of, I'm on my way to give Unit 02 a hand."  
  
"Negative three, she can handle her self. You are to deny your sector to the enemy."  
  
"Wha- what enemy! All the buggers legged it when their glorified Pino's got their capacitors handed back to them in a sling!"  
  
"Even so Cooper, you need to cover the escape route for our troops."  
  
"But maj-"  
  
"Don't make me repeat a direct order Pilot."  
  
Art sat back in the seat, teeth clenched and glaring at the audio only window. Ok, on the one hand, Sohryu was a well trained pilot, and undoubtedly had some experience with eva on eva combat. She handled herself well against that earlier eva, and that was when she was going through a lot, and wasn't she supposed to have taken down her fair share of angels? In light of that, maybe the major was justified in having Art sit this one out.  
  
But... from what he had seen personally...  
  
"Sorry Major? You rescind that direct order?"  
  
"What? No-"  
  
"Command, my radio is out. I'm going to provide back-up for Unit 02."  
  
"Damn it Cooper this isn't a god dam-" Art cut the communications link. He could do without command's helpful comments about why what he was doing was wrong. He would need to concentrate if he was to be any good to Sohryu, and an angry Major shouting in your ear tends to distract you a bit.  
  
He felt moderately ashamed at himself for disobeying the Major, but he felt he was right in doing this. After all, it was a waste of resources having him stuck on the sidelines, not doing much. He smiled, and started his eva running towards the combatants, his umbilical cable hovering in the air on a few jets as he disconnected it.   
  
He got about two strides when the last of the jet alones began to attack. They swarmed towards the green giant, much to the annoyance of the British pilot inside. "Oh bugger," he growled as he drove his broadsword into the first, barging it to the side with his shoulder.   
  
His momentum carried him past that robot, leaving the broadsword buried inside the mechanical warrior. Another came at him as he charged forward. Swinging both fists together he crushed it's side, sending it hurtling into a group of trees.   
  
Another came in flying at his head. His eva already low from the heavy swing, he sent it into a roll across the ground, the shoulder blades digging up divots the size of car parks. As he came up he faced the eva in the direction of Unit 02, ignoring the jet alone landing behind him. He had no time for that right now, he had to get to Sohryu.  
  
But as he turned another jet alone appeared before him. He slammed both arms on it's head, bounding off the ground, effectively leap frogging over the stricken mecha, crumpling the tough metal underneath the eva's weight.  
  
He looked at the far figures of the three combatants. It was still a long way away. He left the crumpled corpse of the twisted metal robot and set off on his short trip to the combat zone.  
  
He never noticed quite how many Jet Alone's were sneaking up behind him. Or how many fell to a bright scarlet beam lancing out from Rei's position.  
  
-----------------------  
  
Rei watched as the green eva tore it's way across the field of battle. It was quite funny watching the green giant hurl itself along at such a rate, ripping great chunks of earth behind it as it's heels dug into the ground.  
  
She was slightly worried though. He had quite voluntarily disobeyed a direct order. The concept she could understand, sometimes a commanding officer did not have the necessary information to accurately asses a situation, at which point it became necessary for a pilot to make a decision. It was the simple fact that he had no acceptable reason to do so that bothered her.  
  
Pilot Sohryu, she felt, was a capable pilot, and clearly did not need help with the new threat. There was absolutely no need for Pilot Cooper to attempt such a risky action. In fact, it was a misallocation of resources. Cooper would have been far more efficient if he had taken the time to dispose of the Jet Alones now following across the field of battle.  
  
She pulled down the trigger, making the tail of mecha behind the British eva significantly smaller. She had decided to use her own initiative and took it upon herself to remove these from the combatant list. If it were not for her steady and methodical application of firepower, Pilot Cooper would have been intercepted by the pursuing robots.   
  
It was strange to think of how often and how close Cooper came to destruction. She wondered if he knew just how regular an event his near extinction was. It confused her to imagine such a persons life, never quite realising the mortality he had, the precariousness of his life.  
  
Another, more distressing thought floated into her mind. What if he knew and simply ignored it?  
  
-----------------------  
  
The first production model, or at least the one closest to her raised it's weapon to strike. There was almost an expression of hatred in the otherwise neutral face. It managed to convey aggression, superiority and disdain in one single permanent leer. Asuka smirked back at the daemonic vision in front of her, weighing up the strengths and weaknesses of the spear held in both hands. The pole arm had a good body length of reach over her own axe- she would have to close fast to snatch the initiative from it.  
  
The other eva held back, as though it were waiting for the other one to settle some score with Asuka. But that was probably just her adrenaline charged mind playing tricks on her. No doubt it was just acting as a guard. If she were to get in close then it would surely stab out, covering it's buddy. It was a standard tactic, and one they actually taught at Nerv as well- which meant she knew exactly what the weaknesses of that approach was.  
  
The next few moments drifted past with the speed of continents. The first one took one step forward, spear raised into a vicious jabbing position. Asuka balanced her axe in her hand, ready to dodge the incoming pole arm. She could almost see the muscles bunching underneath the things armour as they slid over each other into the most efficient positions. It's arm's coiled like a snake.  
  
And a green blur canonballed into it, snapping Asuka's world back into real time. Both blur and attacker were soon on the ground, the spear hurtling out to the side as the production model fumbled it from surprise. The blur formed itself into the shape of the British evangelion piloted by none other than-  
  
"Cooper you fucking moron!" she screamed into the comm. unit.  
  
This was her fight! Her duel between these two foes! Her... her debut battle in whatever country this was! And a god damned rookie had to go plant his heavy handed finger in her business! HER FIGHT!  
  
"Cooper get the hell away from here now!"  
  
The reply was garbled with static, as the two giants wrestled each other on the ground, various antennae buffeted and mired by AT field interference, "*static* -it busy ri- *static* -alk later!"  
  
--------------------------  
  
Art listened with half an ear as the parade of German insults issued forth from his communications window. He frowned. Some he had never heard before. He made a mental note to look up a few after the battle.  
  
He rapidly blocked an incoming appendage that seemed destined to connect with the eva's head, narrowly avoiding being put out of the fight altogether. It was kind of stupid, now that he thought about it. He was locked in a wrestling match with a far stronger opponent, and he had just terminally pissed off the only back up he could count on in the immediate vicinity. It would take something pretty bloody special to help him now.  
  
The two evas rolled over the grey slab that was the factory roof. The white eva ended up on top, and slammed a fist down on to Art's green eva's head. Art jerked it out the way, the fist exploding into the already weakened concrete. Fracture lines ran out from the fist spreading across the roof like a cancer.   
  
In a few seconds the roof gave way to the two evas weight, and they fell into the darkness, Art's green eva landing first on the floor, rolling out of the way just as the white one fell in his old position. He kicked it, sending it flying into a collection of factory equipment.  
  
------------------------  
  
Kensuke walked slowly, yet purposefully from the Horaki household. It was well beyond late now, and the sun was beginning to peak up over the horizon, unsure itself if it was ready for the world to wake up. He sighed, it was still a school day tomorrow, and his late night penguin stalking had taken up all the time he would usually reserve for sleep. Another sigh and a mental shrug later, he began to think of ways he could sleep throughout the day without getting caught.  
  
It had been fun though. He never quite realised how fast the flightless bird could be. That was the thing about Penpen, he always had one more surprise up his wing. But eventually they had managed to corner him behind a dumpster, and Hikari had tempted him from his hiding place using a jar of sardines. From then on it was just a simple matter of avoiding the random pecks and scratches as he carried the penguin back to her house.   
  
He could understand Touji's interest in Hikari though, if not the crush itself. Hikari was, well, special. She could command an entire class into mute obedience, and yet still have the sensitive nature to go hunting for a friends lost penguin when any sane person should have been sleeping. It was a mix that Kensuke decided was admirable.   
  
He checked his watch again. He sighed. He could also understand why his father was going to give him hell for getting back so late, or early in this case. No doubt he would have been asleep rather than staying up worrying, but his dad was a busy man, and any scrap of spare time he had was usually given over to more work or sleep. But Kensuke didn't mind. The yelling that would surely happen was a sign that his father did care about him, which was a lot better than most got.  
  
He looked in the basket he was now carrying under one arm. A small reward from Hikari for helping her out at this time of night. He smiled, maybe these would pacify his old man. A collection of baked goods that had been wrapped up in a cloth.  
  
He grinned. It was probably worth the all nighter just to get his hands on Hikari's buns.  
  
------------------------  
  
Asuka raised an eyebrow in disgust as the two giants rolled into the gaping hole. "Idiot," she commented bitterly. Yeah sure, it was fine coming to help if she needed it, but these amateurs were hardly going to make her even sweat. And to top it off, he had even managed to screw up the rescue attempt.  
  
The second production model stabbed forward. Purely on reflex she blocked the attack. Absolute fool, she thought. First he comes charging across the battlefield with little or no regard for the position of the enemy. The production model, again, attempted a thrust, which she absentmindedly dodged. Then, he manages to put his eva in *the* worst tactical position she had ever seen.  
  
Deciding she had enough of this fool, she dodged another strike, stepped neatly in towards her opponent and grabbed it's throat. It struggled briefly before she threw it back on the ground, the force of the impact stunning it for a few moments.  
  
Asuka took her time in bringing the axe down to cleave it neatly in two, the entry plug obliterated by the axe head, mangled into an unrecognisable object. 'These damn amateurs are barely worth my time,' she thought, idly wiping the blood splatter from the eva's armour.  
  
It was true. These eva's simply lacked any combat experience, and were quite possibly the most predictable enemy she had fought since she went against Rei in the simulator. Pathetic really. They were simply not good enough to beat her.  
  
Of course, Cooper was equally pathetic. She wondered how he was getting on, and whether or not she would have to break his ego by rescuing her would be rescuer. She smirked at that thought.   
  
She had been wrong before, when she had just gotten back out of the hospital. Back then she was still stuck in the rut of believing herself to be second best. Now, she was absolutely, and positively, the best eva pilot.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
He could not believe it. Of all the damned luck. Just as he had been making good his escape plan, two bloody obstacles had literally fallen out of the sky. The member of Selee sighed. Stupid evangelions bringing their fight inside the factory. Didn't they realise the cost of the equipment used in the manufacture of Jet Alones. Nerv had a lot to answer for indeed.  
  
Not to mention the cost of pinning a member of Selee underneath a ton of rubble. He had heard the fall of the two giant mecha, not really paying it much heed. They had been far to far down the factory to bother him that much, and he was nearly at his escape craft anyway. However, whatever the evangelions had done to get in to the factory had caused the roof to come down on him. He had, in retrospect, been fortunate. The rubble had merely crushed a lot of the prosthetics which made up a good proportion of his body, a lot of the organic parts had been left relatively in tact.  
  
The downside to this was the fact he could not escape. He was unable to move in any serious fashion, and unless a kindly soul came down here to help him, he would either be captured, or would simply die of starvation. Neither prospect filled him with much hope, but the idea of starving to death was not as honourable a passing as he had hoped.  
  
There was the sound of footsteps. Perhaps it was a kindly soul? He doubted it. They were getting closer now. The old man twisted his head to try and see the face of the person who was approaching. He couldn't quite see the face, but the uniform was pretty clear. The uniform of a Nerv sergeant, prepped for combat. He had signed the document releasing funds for them himself. He was already regretting that.  
  
"So, you have found me."  
  
The sergeant squatted next to the old man. He reached down to the old man's jacket, checking that the badge of Selee was there. The sergeant stood back up.  
  
"Are you going to take me into custody? Or has Ikari got other plans for his former superiors?"  
  
He heard the subtle click of a safety catch being released.  
  
"I see."  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Art rose to his feet, his heart pounding. It had the edge over him. He only had, he checked, three minutes of power left. After that it would all be over and that guy would try and finish off Sohryu. He could not let that happen. Besides, he grinned, it would not help his ego to be beaten by this guy. The monitor system registered the low light levels, activating the night vision backups. He was surrounded by an eerie green glow, that failed to present him with a clear view of the world. Assuming it to be too dark for even the sophisticated detection systems, he strained his eyes to take stock of his surroundings.  
  
His eva barely fit in the factory. He had a clearance of about twenty metres from his shoulder blades to the roof. He grimaced. This fight was not going to be pleasant. The low ceiling would make any kind of manoeuvring difficult, and if his combat instructors had taught him anything, it was that restrictive situations were to be avoided.   
  
He hit a few buttons on his control panel, and the progressive knife flipped out of it's housing. He grabbed it, and was knocked aside by the white eva's charge. He hadn't seen it coming, it was too dark. He could barely see.  
  
The two evas crashed into more expensive sounding equipment. Art ended up underneath it again, but this time he brought the eva's knees up into a ball and kicked it up. He heard it thump into the ceiling, and car sized chunks of concrete bounced off his armour. It fell to the ground next to him, and he leapt his eva on top of it, striking down with the knife. It gripped his knife arm, and a struggle began between them, both fighting to gain control over the weapon.   
  
He could almost feel the other pilots fear, his desperate attempt to humanise his opponent. He could sense the aggression pouring off of him. He was only a few dozen metres from him, lost in the green enhanced haze. Locked in a gutter fight, the two evas each trying to gain the upper hand. In the dark, a mad scramble for the last one standing, both feeding off of each others survival instinct. Art could smell the anger buzzing around him, a chaotic mess of sensations, yet infinitely focussed on the pilot in the other war machine.  
  
The white eva, in an act of desperation, brought it's head up sharply, neatly nutting the green eva. Art was stunned from the impact, stars exploding in his eyes. Art lost control of the eva for a second, the shock causing the eva to slacken it's grip on the weapon. The white demon took advantage of this, twisting the green eva's arm around and plunging the knife into it's chest. Art gasped as the pain swept across him. The green eva snarled in protest, and the knee came up sharply between the attacker's legs, a learnt reflex from back alley scraps where both sides forgot whatever reasons they had, and just went for the throat.  
  
This did not appear to have the desired effect of leaving the other guy in a helpless ball, probably due to the fact that the other pilot remembered that evas aren't equipped in that fashion. What it did result in was the other eva forcing Art over onto his back, flattening more of the factory equipment as he went. It reached over and dragged the knife, still plunged up to the hilt in the green eva, across the body, a jet of blood disappearing into the darkness of the roof.  
  
Art was in agony, the fire across his chest burning away any rational thought. The white eva was quick to push it's advantage, vaulting on top of Art's eva, simultaneously squeezing with it's legs and pummelling it's midsection. Art shut his eyes tightly, hoping to God the pain would end. His arms were tight across his chest, warding off the invisible fists that battered him.  
  
The white eva stopped it's pummelling, instead driving it's hand into the green evas chest. It got a good grip on the chest armour and wrenched it away, tearing a good amount of flesh with it. Art felt as though he would pass out from the pain. He fuzzily heard an electronic voice tell him that Carbon Dioxide was being pumped into the LCL mix. Evidently the life support systems had picked up on the fact he was hyperventilating. Increasing the carbon dioxide content reduced oxygen dependency, keeping the pilot more or less sane. No amount of clever biology was going to keep Art's heart from beating out of his chest.  
  
The white eva began to dig through the soft inner tissue of the British made eva, blood oozing out into the factory, chunks of meat clinging to the now unused tools. Art felt it all as though it were his own body, the monster blindly groping his own chest, ripping apart his ribs, revelling in the ravaging of his innards. Sanity was not something he wanted right now.  
  
And yet he could do nothing.  
  
He could barely think.   
  
He had no defence against this white monstrosity. And to be fair, he started it. His body screamed at his mind to make it stop, to somehow make the hurting go away. But he couldn't. The pain was too intense.  
  
He was going to die in this cold worthless place, somewhere by rights he should not be, instead enjoying the carefree life that was owed to him. Not here, blinded by darkness, under the tender mercies of a butcher, heart beat ringing in his ears, blotting out the guttural war chant of his enemy.  
  
He imagined himself being torn limb from limb. He imagined a world where the pain had stopped because he had died. He imagined a place where his father had no one left to call family.  
  
In a flash of sanity he hit a combination on the arm rest pads. His right shoulder blade cracked open. The white eva stopped its grisly excavation to examine this new development. Art gripped the pilots sticks with a vigour born of self preservation, eyes blazing intensely in the animal lust for survival.   
  
His eva's arms reached up, and rammed the white demon onto the shoulder blade. The eva emitted a low rumble of primal fury. There was a series of pops as the gas launched grenades fired from the blade housing, with enough concussive force to demolish several city blocks.  
  
The white eva was blasted away, leaving Art with the more immediate problem of a half torn out chest and now another wound from the grenade explosions. He tried to get the eva to stand so it could escape, but the best he could manage was a crawl.  
  
"Move you lousy piece of junk..." he grunted drowsily, almost wrenching the joysticks from their housings, willing the eva to move faster. The white eva landed with a heavy thud next to him. An alarm wailed in his ear. He glanced at the damage readout. The blast had gotten more of him than he had thought, the plug life support systems were failing. He could taste the subtle change in the LCL, once a tasteless goo, now something reminiscent of blood, the filtration systems finally letting the natural pollutants run free.  
  
Seeing he could not escape, Art settled for tearing his opponent apart. He would be damned if he gave up now, not after all he had gone through. And he was far too out of it to think of anything more complex. The LCL in the plug was rapidly becoming unusable, much like blood in the body if separated from the lungs for too long. He was becoming short of breath, oxygen deprivation getting the better of him. Little black dots started to pop out of his vision, in stark contrast to the red haze in the corners of his eyes, all adding to the green glow of the monitors to produce a nauseating assault on his eyes.  
  
The green eva punched up off the floor, it's pilot grunting with the exertion, landing on top of the production model. Weakly his eva clenched around the others chest armour, gripping it tightly with its fingers. But the white eva was not going to allow that. Snarling it brought it's legs up, kicking Art's eva into the factory. Art had kept a hold of the chest plate though, and it was torn free, exposing the eva series' own skin.  
  
Art was now nearly out for the count. His attempt to save Sohryu had turned into a complete failure. His power was nearly gone as the white eva lifted him up, ramming him into the ceiling. The green eva was impaled to the factory roof by it's shoulder blades.  
  
The white eva began to hit it. The force of the blows gently swayed the green eva back and forth. Art could barely feel the pain now. His world was now fuzzy, growing dark at the edges, black lines feeling in from the corner of his vision. The plug's life support must have been destroyed in the grenade explosions. He was finding it hard to breathe  
  
Dumbly, he rolled his head over to where his power read out was. Barely twenty seconds worth of useful power. And there only two things holding him in position. He could taste his anger in the warm, foul smelling plug. The arrogance of that monster to think he would succumb to humiliation. Well, he would see how defeated this pilot was.  
  
Dreamily his hand wandered down to a small panel to the side of his chair. He opened it to reveal another console, something only the plug technicians were supposed to know about. He keyed in a number combination, and a small lever popped out on the other side of the seat. This would release the eva from it's shoulder blades, the battery supply for the eva. If he released it he would have roughly two seconds of useful power. It was certain death. Art gripped it, and pulled anyway.  
  
Hydraulic clamps keeping the shoulder blades in place suddenly went slack. The green eva dropped from the ceiling, sliding cleanly from the shoulder pads.  
  
Art barely thought about his actions. The green eva stepped forward, almost on autopilot, thrusting his hand through the exposed flesh of the white eva, delving deep, past the organs, past the muscle and bones. He gripped something that felt like a smooth gem and squeezed.   
  
THE END  
  
A/N: Didya have fun? Because now it gets dark for the 6th child, whilst brightening for the rest of the cast. The sequel to this will be in the next book. I set myself a limit of 6 chapters per book, and hopefully there will be 6 books. If you've worked out why I'm going for 6s, now try to work out what the last 6 is ;) Oh, and you may have noticed a lack of Shinji in this chapter, don't worry, he gets the whole first chapter of the next book. Just him, Rei, and a bucket full of angst.  
  
Rob - Unit 00s not unstable for the berserker reaction, I meant unstable for a different reason. Explained later on, when it becomes a problem. This is what is known as foreshadowing...that or it's just a random thought I had to keep Rei out of harms way, I' not sure ^_^;;  
  
Dragon of the Rifts - This takes place approximately 1 month(ish) after episode 24 (I think I mentioned this in Part 1), Shinji is in a... he's sorta... well remember how Asuka was during the final episodes of the series? Like that, he's in hospital. Only not quite like that. Either way he's not up to his usual angsty self. And Unit 01? No pilot, therefore, back at Nerv. Don't worry though, he's got quite a lot of action to get through before this story is over, although his main role in this story will be a non-combative character. In my opinion he never was much of a fighter, and probably deserves a break from the stress. Anyway, glad you liked it.  
  
  
  
*sigh* Best review(/flame) wins a cookie. That's it, I'm off to bed.   
  
You still here? 


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